I was under the impression that a woman's state OAP was derived from her husband's contributions and any that she may have made whilst working. Changed a few years back (14 to 16 or maybe more years ago?) when they were unable to opt out of the full NIS contribution.
Ok the calculation.
If a woman (born 1946) has had say three NIS contributing husbands in her working life, but was working full time from say 1965 to 1967, child rearing and then uni studies 'til 1986 when she started fulltime work again. This continued until 1997 when ill health forced early early retirement. 3rd husband stopped NIS contributions in 1996 due to early retirement.
Coming up to state pension age in april 2006 what would be the benefits? It has been complicated by the continual tampering of successive governments with the system. Apparently a woman loses the contributions of previous marriage partners (1st divorced, 2nd widowed) on remarriage? Seems a bit one-sided that! jim