All this talk of the impending pensions crisis has got me thinking. Just wondering do any PhD students pay in to a pension fund? Also does anyone independently pay their national insurance contributions?

Hi Tom,
Yeah, I have recently got a letter saying that I haven;t made any contributions for the year 03/04. To be entitled for a full pension I need to pay them about 350 quid. To me this is a lot of money and I am not convinced there will be a pension at the end of it. Am tempted to pay to be on the safe side and also open a private pension as well. The leaflets that came with this letter were not very useful. I think our research councils should provide us with some info on this.

I agree that research councils should provide us with more information. The ESRC recommend that we speak to a local benefits office - however, I shouldn’t imagine that it is the sort of enquire they get to often so not convinced they could help much - I may try though!

I would give them a call. Ask how much it would cost to make contributions during your PhD? If it is less than 350 quid for one year then I would do it. Probably much less.