Being in my early 50s and feeling tired and overworked, I started dreaming about my pension so I decided to visit the social services office to see where I stand with the new scheme.

My enthusiasm soon turned into shock and disappointment. From what I gather, in order to qualify for a full pension you must have to your credit 35 years of National Insurance contributions.

This I agree with. However, the crunch is that my pension will practically be based only on the average of the last 10 years. This is when I started to cry.

The amount I paid during the first 25 years will in no way be reflected in my pension. I feel this is most unfair, as the best years for us self-employed are usually the earlier ones when we are in our best of health both mentally and physically. I know they say life begins at 40 but who or what peaks at 60?

This is putting us self-employed in a vulnerable position. The pension should be based on the average of all 35 years. Nobody has the right to rob me of my high contributions which I paid and worked so hard for during the past 25 years.

As for those who are employed and not self-employed , the situation is much rosier because they get to choose the best three years of the last 10 – so it means they have a better chance of qualifying for a good pension.

Why are we self-employed, or rather self-occupied being discriminated against? We work hard all our lives, we invest our own money in our business, we fork out the whole national insurance contribution, and after all this we are treated as second-class citizens.

I sincerely hope the minister responsible will review our situation. The least he can do is offer us the same scheme which employed people have.

One last comment – where does the GRTU stand on this?