No Tim, nothing so sophisticated as plagiarism I’m afraid . I just Googled European OAPs ranked, and then checked the UK one for comparison. I wasn’t going to do any more “research” because I already knew the UK OAP is bloody mean, and the amount of time they go on about it and the triple lock being overly generous is risible. Or begrudging OAPs the hard earned equity in their homes. As if scrimping and saving to pay a mortgage had been easy. And then remember the annuity mortgage fiasco.
I hadn’t heard the “Rachel from accounts” slur, very clever and very apt. She did lie in her budget, As for her boss I hope someone comes up with an equally demeaning moniker for him. His voice has me reaching for the off switch every time I hear it.
A man who takes pride and credit for taking thousands of children out of poverty, having been beaten by his backbenchers with a blunt instrument for a year to do so - now he’s proud And suddenly he’s discovered that the key to growth, the only sure key t growth, is closer involvement with the Single Market, No shit Sherlock
Sure, if casual misogyny is your thing. To quote my previous comment.
Some go on with the somewhat misogynistic “Rachel from accounts” but we never heard similar nicknames for Kwarteng while being utterly irresponsible, Hunt (at least none that are printable) when he was deliberately salting the earth, Sunak while encouraging us all to eat out and spread the virus. It’s simply double standards
Just to clarify, I’m not suggesting prior years accrued would be annulled, my concern was that they might not allow anyone to pay class 3 contributions if they hadn’t already paid 10 years into the system while living in the UK. If that were the case, then I will condemned to fall 12 years short of what I need.
The problem I’ve had living in France, is whilst I’m self-employed, my earnings are really low (some years I was able to opt not to pay anything towards it), and so anything I will get from the French side will be a pittance, so my focus was on my UK state pension. I don’t have enough to pay extra voluntary contributions to improve it in France unless things change, but the way inflation is increasing, online markets suffering more and more, and international trade becoming harder and more prohibitive, it’s hard to see it improving any time soon.
I freely admit my research was scant (and that’s over praising it ) but don’t combine anything. The Irish OAP, uncombined with anything is €21,776, the UK OAP is less than £14K. The employee PRSI (NI) rate in Ireland is 4.2%, no ceiling, the UK rate 8% up to 50K then 2% (am I right?) so in the UK the richer you are the less you pay? (am I correct there too?).
So if you are beavering away at €40k PA, forgetting thresholds etc. you’re paying 4% on that and you end up with a pension of nearly €22K. In the UK you’re equally beavering away for STG19k paying 8% and you get a pension of less than £14K.
Now given my fag packet calculations and lazy (on this occasion ) research I may be up a gum tree, but the UK systems seems very mean to me. And this fiddling with contribution classes for gaps just makes it meaner, maybe more equitable, but meaner. Will any funds saved be used for the benefit of pensioners, or just pissed down the drain (a technical term for Government expenditure) as usual.
I guess the choice is a Tory attitude to benefits, delivered by the Tory lite party (Labour) or a Tory attitude to benefits delivered by the Tory party or a flog them within an inch if their lives attitude to benefits by the Reform party. Mugsborough reborn.
Funny thing is with AI taking most jobs away, probably 80% on the population will be on benefits (AKA a living wage) in years to come anyway.
The point is, no one has done that for much graver issues. We all know that the subtext is the wee lassie from the accounts office who shouldn’t be left in charge of the calculator rather than the finance director that we don’t agree with.
It’s applied to women in politics ad nauseam, where they are pilloried for issues that are brushed off when a man is involved.
Thar’s only a relatively new thing in the UK. Except for the privileged and, since around 2013, auto-enrolment. Auto-enrolment = the requirement for employers to offer a pension plan to which employers are also obliged to contribute minimum amounts. In fact many workers are still not covered by auto-enrolment.
Till very recently the majority of real working people trusted and relied on their State Pension being forthcoming as they had been told it would be in exchange for their N.I. contributions in a lifetime of working.
There were pensions from employers but in ‘state’ or possibly local authority jobs, in other words public entities. Also employees in state-osned entities like water boarrd, gas boards, BT etc. Occasionally for some large compsnies mass provision, depending on how strong the unions were eg car companies.
But in the private sector pensions weren’t given to apply to the masses. Directors, perhaps, forming part of a generous pay package and tax efficient. And in some private companies for other types or higher levels of employees.
Most still relied on the state pension. People weren’t educated to do their own savings and salary tax and salaries of low level meant huge numbers somy couldn’t have put extra by for their retirement
I was there. I worked for an excellent company with a pension scheme. It started company senior management only then was extended down to aboit Grade 8. Below Grade 8, no access tonprnsion benefit but just the national state pension eligibility. Most employees were Grade 7 or below. I was in the 1 in 10 ratio, or so, of women employees in the company that made it as far as Grade 8. Most women remsined in the lower non-eligible grades.
This was normality. I was lucky working for a good compsny in an industry that was doing well. Most UK workers were not that fortunate.
And that really wasn’t thst long ago either. Most people I came across had nothing.
That’s all in your head John… That’s your interpretation.
This leaping on it as a gender put down may be a legitimate reaction to a larger issue.
The firm I worked for had very strict (and appropriate) rules on workplace behaviour, respect for the individual, etc. way before it became the norm, way back in the sixties. In my many years of travelling around our European offices I found a level of sexism alive and well in England (we’d no presence in Wales and I never visited our Scottish offices) that certainly didn’t exist on the continent, You would hear attitudes in London that would not be acceptable in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, wherever. Maybe there’s a legitimate backlash and sensitivity to this that doesn’t exist elsewhere.
The thought that “Rachel from Accounts” was in the least misogynistic never even occurred me, and I’m proud to say, because in the world I worked in it wouldn’t have been.
Maybe the person who coined it was being misogynistic, if so it proves England still has a problem But it’s their problem, not mine
I find the idea that someone has hoofed it up from Accounts with a hastily thrown together load of ill thought out twaddle very compelling, whether it’s Kwasi or Rachel is irrelevant.
Well all In can say is that’s very disappointing. I thought England had emerged somewhat from its laddish past. Though I suppose the continuing popularity of “lads” (read thugs) like Boris and Nigel should have warned otherwise.
Just for info, I asked my wife’s view on the Rachel from accounts line. She shrugged her shoulders and when I asked if she thought it misogynistic she said no. But we both worked for the same firm and would have similar profiles in working with international colleagues. I guess one would need to be attuned to the English nuance of the phase to see misogyny.
But equally Jennifer, you are looking at the comment through a UK lens, neither my wife nor I are. I bow to your interpretation, but if you are correct then it’s a small example of a far greater problem. i don’t think a French or German person would assume that because one is female one’s role in the Accounts Department was menial.
After a series of men, my last CFO was a woman and she replaced me when I retired, her gender was never and never would have been an issue. Her relative youth was a bit of an impediment I had to overcome. But we succeeded and she was brilliant She has a VERY big job now
Yes, I’m looking at it through a UK lens. The audience for these comments is in the UK. If I might say, the impact on other nationalities isn’t the point.
Hmm.. personally I reckon it would be polite to say Miss/Mrs XYX, much better than simply using her christian name .
Considered as a lowly female by many of my male colleagues, in what was very much “a man’s world” in those days, I was never introduced by my christian name but politely (if not always respectfully) as Mrs blah blah.
Sorry, I should have looked back and read your post properly. I still can’t see them making a retrospective distinction between contributions that were made while UK resident and contributions made while non-resident, though. Am sure you’ll be fine.
Out of curiosity, do other countries allow people who once worked there for a few years to continue making contributions towards a state pension after they leave? I have a lot of Irish friends here in Strasbourg and certainly none of them have mentioned having a similar option in Ireland. Nor are any of the French people I know in the UK still contributing to a French public scheme.
The planned change is for “new applications” made from April 2026 to pay class 3 contributions. So if before April 2026 you are already paying class 3 contributions you would just continue to do so. If you’re currently paying class 2 you would have to apply for class 3 - they won’t just transition you.
But there’s a catch. The new contributions start for the tax year 26/27 and HMRC will notify class 2 contributers in July 2026 that they are affected by the change and tell you what to do. So by my reckoning if you THEN apply to pay class 3 (after April 2026) the new rules apply. They aren’t going to formally notify you until after that deadline has passed.
So if you want to keep paying contributions you may need to consider applying to pay class 3 before the end of this tax year. If you’re already paying them before April 2026, you just carry on. Obviously they’re more expensive, so you need to do the calculations as to the cost and value. But if you wait until after April to apply you are likely to fall foul of the rules. Obviously don’t take my word for it - but look into it now while there’s still time to change:
You can’t pay voluntary contributions in France like you do in the UK (see @hairbear above). It’s really strict and maxes out at 3 years. BUT while you may get a pittance of a contributory state pension in France the ASPA tops that up (like pension credit in the UK) to make sure you have a minimum income in retirement. It would take into account your UK pension and other income though as its means-tested.
. I just Googled European OAPs ranked, and then checked the UK one for comparison. I wasn’t going to do any more “research” 
because I already knew the UK OAP is bloody mean, and the amount of time they go on about it and the triple lock being overly generous is risible. Or begrudging OAPs the hard earned equity in their homes. As if scrimping and saving to pay a mortgage had been easy. And then remember the annuity mortgage fiasco.
And suddenly he’s discovered that the key to growth, the only sure key t growth, is closer involvement with the Single Market, No shit Sherlock 
) research I may be up a gum tree, but the UK systems seems very mean to me. And this fiddling with contribution classes for gaps just makes it meaner, maybe more equitable, but meaner. Will any funds saved be used for the benefit of pensioners, or just pissed down the drain (a technical term for Government expenditure) as usual.
But it’s their problem, not mine