When did the UK ...

[Kit]

... first get the old age pension?

Just curious as the 1939 register is showing that a few of my female relatives lied about their age.

So if they were entitled to a pension they would not have got it as their age was not what they had been telling the Government.

[Shona]

It was paid from 1 January 1909 to people over 70 who met a number of qualifying conditions. Recipients had to be earning less than £31 10s per annum, had to pass a 'good character' test and been a UK resident for at least 20 years to be eligible. Some groups of people were excluded from the pension - former prisoners for 10 years after they left prison, people in asylums, those who had never worked and people with convictions for being drunk. Whether someone qualified was decided by a Local Pension Committee. There was a form to complete to apply for a pension (it was non-contributory), but I don't know if documentary evidence had to be provided for date of birth.

[Olde Crone]

Kit

If you mean the universal state pension then that operated from 1948 onwards. Other, private contributory or work-placed pensions were in force before that but obviously not for everyone.

Most married women would not have been worrying about the State Pension rules, as it would be paid to the husband, not the wife.

It has always been possible, where state pension is concerned, to prove age by means other than a birth certificate, for instance by declaration. In the early years of SP (1908 for some men over 70) many of the claimants would not have had a birth certificate or would not have been able to get one, being uncertain of their actual date of birth.

While researching on here for a friend we discovered that her gran had been paid SP from the age of 56 instead of 60 because the Pension Dept had looked for a BC for her and landed on the cert of her dead sister,similar name, born and died four years before my friend's gran!

I also clearly remember reading in a women's magazine, on the problem pages lol, a letter from a woman who had lied about her age to get a job and was now in her late 60s but still only 57 as far as her employers and and the SP department were concerned. She wanted to retire but couldn't. The advice was to fess up!

OC

[Shona]

OC is correct. Proof of age was required to qualify for the pension but, right from 1908, there were difficulties getting proof of age. Baptismal certificates were accepted, but only if date of birth was on it. There were calls in Parliament for church registers to be opened up to help get the required proof. Back then would-be recipients were visited in their homes by inspectors who then passed to case on to the committee for approval.

The 1925 Contributory Pensions Act introduced a contributory state scheme for manual workers and others earning up to £250 a year. This scheme provided a pension of 10s a week from the age of 65.

In 1940, the Old Age and Widows’ Pension Act broadened the benefits available to women by reducing the pensionable age to 60 for unmarried insured women and the wives of insured male pensioners.

[Merry]

While researching on here for a friend we discovered that her gran had been paid SP from the age of 56 instead of 60 because the Pension Dept had looked for a BC for her and landed on the cert of her dead sister,similar name, born and died four years before my friend's gran!


Ooh, I remember that - didn't the younger living sister have a diminutive as a birth name, but the older dead sister had the 'proper' version as her first name?! I do know the births were each side of the 1901 census :D

[Olde Crone]

Merry, your memory is like a computer!

Yes, you have remembered correctly, the "replacement sister" had a diminutive of the first daughter's name. And you were the one who found the correct birth cert.

Family were very peeved to hear of this from me as they had paid out for an elaborate gravestone which of course bore the wrong age, lol. (And the wrong name, actually, come to think of it).

OC

[Merry]

lol!! I can just imagine their faces!

[Olde Crone]

...and the wrong birthday!

OC

[Janet]

Sometimes you get your morning belly laugh from the most unexpected places. Thank you, all. :D

[JBee]

Some years ago I looked for my Mum's birth entry in the registers - erm not there. She'd taken a couple of years off her age even on her wedding certificate. Just short of her 68th birthday she had to retire under protest from being a teacher - my Dad retired at the same time a year early lol.

So Mum's gravestone says she died at 68 and not 70 - so anyone looking will be taken in by the wrong age lol.

Just looked her up on the 1939 register - yep she'd still knocked 2 years off.

[Kit]

Thanks for the information and the laughs.