Sue asks:

On returning to work after having my family in 1971 I was advised that I should pay the Married Womans Stamp instead of ordinary national insurance contributions. I have worked continually since then and was 60 in January 2009.  Yes, I'm sure you know what is coming next!! I now receive a pension of £1.50 per week.  It does seem wrong that having worked for 40 years and paid all my contributions that something I was advised to do, and was basically told was the correct thing to do, now means I receive this paltry sum. People who have claimed benefits all their working life still receive a full state pension even though they don't make national insurance contributions.  Is there anything I can do or action I can take?  Your advice would be appreciated.

The pension of £1.50 a week will be what you are entitled to receive from the old Graduated Retirement Benefits scheme which ran from 1961 to 1975, at which point it was replaced by SERPS (now the state second pension). Unfortunately, as Sue now realises, opting for and paying the reduced married woman’s liability contribution (the married woman’s stamp) does not count for the basic state pension and therefore she has ended up at retirement with no basic state pension in her own right.

The only way she can improve her state pension position is by claiming a pension on her husband’s record of national insurance contributions. If she is still married to her husband she will be entitled to receive approximately 60% of his basic state pension, but only when he gets to his state pension age (currently 65). If she is divorced or widowed she would normally be allowed to substitute his record of contributions, where appropriate, for hers up to the date of divorce (decree absolute).

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