Pension Planning (Retrospectively speaking)

I was unable to trade in the past 8 years due to being denied access to the market place. Thus I had no earnings and thus no contribution to a pension. My wife and I are both 63 years of age so what figure should we have been contributing to a pension during those years? The overall matter of being unable to trade is before the courts but I need some advice on what consideration the Courts should be giving to the matter in terms of sums of money per year that should have been contributed if everything had been as it should have been.

Anything from € 0 to whatever your total income would have been - there is no way anybody could answer this question based on the information you have supplied

You would have got tax relief on pension contributions up to 35% of your earnings up to age 59, and up to 40% from 60 on

Trainman said:

what figure should we have been contributing to a pension during those years?

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The question doesn't really make sense.
"Should" in what sense/context?
You might need to clarify what you're asking.

One yardstick might be the age related pension tax relief income percentage limits?
Edit: my post crossed with @jpd's but we're basically saying the same thing.

The Court is going to have to give consideration to an annual earnings figure for both of us which will probably come from the original business plan projections. In the circumstances, how best should I frame the pension question to the Court?

The pension contributions would have come out of the earnings, so I do not understand why they are a consideration

If you get an award for the earnings, then that will put you back where you were, no?

jpd said:

If you get an award for the earnings, then that will put you back where you were, no?

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The poster would have suffered a financial loss due to being unable to make tax relieved pension payments for the years in question.
The financial losses would include the loss of the 25% tax free lump-sum and tax free investment gains on the pension amount they were unable to contribute.

Trainman said:

The Court is going to have to give consideration to an annual earnings figure for both of us which will probably come from the original business plan projections. In the circumstances, how best should I frame the pension question to the Court?

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Maybe, I would/should have been earning €x p.a., of which I would have contributed y% of my monthly earnings to a pension (on which I would have received tax relief) and which would have grown by z% (net of charges) over that time. So now I should have a pension pot equivalent to whatever that works out at when x, y, and z are filled in with appropriate figures.

Top class response folks. Thanks to all.