How is my wife’s state pension bigger than mine?#AskAMS

I’ve been self-employed for 45 years, paid NI (Class 2 & 4). My wife worked part time / low paid jobs.

This is a good question. It’s because we used to have two types of State Pension: the Basic State Pension and the Secondary State Pension (formerly SERPS).

You probably didn’t receive a Secondary State Pension because, until April 2016 self-employed NI contributions didn’t count towards it. However, your wife’s Employee’s NI contributions, did count towards her Secondary State Pension – so she gets a bigger pension.

Class 2 and Class 4 contributions have been, in effect, just another tax (so are Employer’s NI contributions).

Since April 2016, we have had one flat-rate State Pension irrespective of how much NI we pay and the self-employed are now treated the same as the employed. A bit late for you, I’m afraid.