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The state pension is likely to be a key feature of your retirement income, so knowing what it is and how much you will get can help you plan better for the future.
The age at which you can claim your state pension rose from 65 to 66 for both men and women in October 2020. It will increase again to 67, and then to 68, over the next few decades. While you may have to wait longer to receive your pension, the good news is that the chancellor recently confirmed that it will keep the generous state pension triple lock – the current system under which pensioners are promised a rise each year in line with the cost of living, average earnings growth or 2.5%, whichever is higher. Maintaining the triple lock is a Conservative party manifesto pledge, but the government had come under pressure to scrap it to save money.
What is the state pension?
This is a regular payment from the government that you can claim when you reach state pension age. But before you think that means your retirement funding is all sorted and paying into a private pension is a waste of money, there are a few things to remember. First, depending on the sort of lifestyle you want to lead, the state pension is unlikely to offer anything more than covering the basics – if that. Even then, not everyone will receive the full amount – currently about £9,000 a year – and, contrary to popular belief, not everyone gets a state pension.
Who is entitled to it and how much you will be paid depends on how many “qualifying” years of national insurance contributions (NICs) you have built up during your working life. If you have been unable to work for periods of time – perhaps if you had caring responsibilities – or if you have been claiming employment and support allowance or jobseeker’s allowance, you will receive credits instead.
Unlike a personal pension, which you can take at 55 (rising to 57 in 2028), when you can claim your state pension depends on when you were born. The official state pension age is currently 66 for both men and women – and as we all live longer, the age will gradually increase further to ease the burden on government finances.
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The new state pension
In April 2016 a new flat-rate state pension was introduced to make it simpler to understand, but the changes only affect those reaching retirement age on or after April 6, 2016. As a result, there are now two systems to navigate.
For the new system, you need 35 years of NICs or credits to claim the full state pension and 10 years to get anything at all. For years where you have not been receiving credits or working, you may be able to make voluntary contributions in order to be eligible for the full amount.
As the new system only went live in 2016, most current retirees are still being paid under the old one. This is divided into two parts: a basic state pension and an additional state pension, also known as the state second pension. Both are based on your previous NICs but the additional state pension also considers your earnings, whether you contracted out of the scheme, and whether you topped up your basic state pension. To get the full basic state pension, you need to have 30 years of NICs. If you have less, you get 1/30th of the full state pension amount for each year of contributions.
The state pension system is run by the Pension Service, which is part of the Department for Work and Pensions. It can help with any questions you have about your pension.
You can check your state pension age and get an estimate of how much you are entitled to by checking your state pension forecast on the gov.uk website.
How much is the state pension?
For those reaching state pension age on or after April 6, 2016, the new single-tier “full level” of state pension is £175.20 a week (or £9,110.40 a year) for 2020-21. If you retired before this date, then the full basic state pension is £134.25 a week.
How much state pension you’ll actually receive depends on your national insurance record. To claim your state pension at the full rate, you will need 35 years of national insurance contributions by the time you reach state pension age under the new system, or 30 years under the old one. Many people will have built up some additional state pension, based on their earnings during their career, so will get more than the basic state pension. You could also get more if you have deferred your state pension. These amounts go up every year under the triple lock system – more on this shortly – but in April 2020, both increased by 3.9% in line with average earnings.
It is important to have an idea of how much your pension pots will be worth to help plan for retirement. To check your state pension and get a pension forecast, visit the Pension Service.
What is the state pension age?
The age at which you can start to claim your state pension from the government is currently 66 for both men and women, but may be different depending on when you were born. When you will reach state pension age involves working it out from the year and month you were born. You can check your state pension age on the gov.uk website.
The age at which you can draw the pension will rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028. It is expected that between 2037 and 2039, the age will increase further to 68 – a government review in 2017 brought these dates forward by seven years.
Women born in the 1950s have seen the biggest rise in their state pension age, from 60 to 66. Critics say the women were treated unfairly as the government gave them little notice about the change in their state pension age.
How is the state pension calculated?
The state pension is calculated using a formula that takes into account your national insurance contributions and credits when you reach state pension age, and any periods that you were contracted out of the additional state pension – paying less in the way of NICs if you were part of a workplace or personal pension scheme – as well as any additional state pension you may have accrued.
The state pension is horribly complicated – partly because we have two different systems – but if you want to know the full workings (deep breath), here goes…
Your “starting amount” is based on your national insurance record before April 6, 2016 and is the higher of either what you would receive under the old rules, including your basic state pension and state second pension, or what you’d get from the new state pension.
If your starting amount is less than the full new state pension, you can add more qualifying years to your national insurance record after April 5, 2016, up until you reach the full amount or you reach your state pension age – whichever is first. Each qualifying year will add about £5 a week to your retirement income.
To achieve the full state pension, you need 35 qualifying years, so the exact amount you will get is calculated by dividing £175.20 by 35 and then multiplying by the number of qualifying years after April 5, 2016.
For example:
Your starting amount before April 6, 2016 was £120 based on your NIC record.
You pay for another six qualifying years, adding £30 a week.
Your state pension will be about £150 a week, though this figure may change once inflation is taken into account.
If your starting amount is more than the full new state pension, the excess is called your “protected payment” and is paid on top. Any qualifying years added after 5 April, 2016 will not provide you with any more state pension.
You usually need at least 10 years of NICs to get any money or 35 years to be eligible for the full state pension, so what you receive will be a proportion of the new state benefit between 10 and 35 years.
For example:
You have 20 qualifying years
You divide £175.20 by 35 and then multiply by 20
Your new state pension will be £100.11 per week.
State pensions currently rise each year in line with the triple lock system. If you receive a protected payment, that will increase only by the consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation.
If you aren’t sure how much you are likely to receive, it takes only 2 minutes to use a pensions calculator to check. It is important to have an idea of what your pension pot is likely to look like when you reach retirement age so you can plan effectively now for the future.
What does ‘contracting out’ mean?
Under the old pensions system, employees could elect to be “contracted out” of the additional state pension, also known as the state second pension, or Serps, in return for a bigger private pension pot: a worker and their employer paid lower national insurance contributions, with extra money going into their personal pension, or an employer-sponsored money purchase scheme, instead. Contracting out ended in April 2016, but it can still affect your state pension entitlement.
Those who were contracted out for many years might find they get less pension income than they had expected. People qualifying for a state pension under the old system will receive less or no additional state pension if they spent time contracted out, while those reaching state pension age on or after April 6, 2016 will receive a lower “starting amount”.
What is the state pension triple lock?
Back in 2010, the coalition government introduced the state pension triple lock guarantee. The aim was to ensure that pensioners would not see the cost of living or the average wage growth of workers overtake what they received in retirement. The state pension is therefore increased each year in line with whichever is the highest of:
The consumer prices index measure of the rate of inflation
Earnings growth (the increase in average wages)
2.5%
The government uses September’s figure of inflation to increase the state pension the following April. In April 2020, the new and older basic state pension both increased by 3.9% in line with average earnings. The state pension is expected to rise 2.5% in April 2021, due to September 2020’s inflation reading of 0.5% and average earnings being lower than a year earlier. This should mean the new flat-rate state pension goes up by £4.40 a week to £179.60 a week next April, while the old basic state pension rises by £3.35 to £137.60 a week.
How do I get a state pension forecast?
A state pension forecast is an estimate of what you are likely to get when you reach state pension age based on your national insurance record. It is not a guarantee of what you will receive and doesn’t factor in the triple lock, but it is still useful for retirement planning. You can check your state pension online using the government’s Pension Service. If you will reach your state pension age in more than 30 days, you can call the Future Pension Centre for a statement or you can fill in a paper application form from the Department for Work and Pensions and send it in the post.
Your forecast will show the number of qualifying years on your national insurance record, including any gaps where you have not made national insurance contributions or received national insurance credits. The forecast will also show an estimate for any contracted-out pension equivalent. Again this is only an estimate, as the exact amount your scheme will pay if you contracted out depends on the rules of your private pension scheme and any investment choices.
Can I carry on working and claim the state pension?
Yes, you can carry on working either full-time or part-time, or doing freelance work, while claiming state pension.
If you want to work for as long as you can, you could consider deferring your state pension. That way, you will boost the amount you receive each week when you do eventually stop working. For someone reaching state pension age after April 2016, every nine weeks you defer lifts that weekly payment by 1%. That’s a 5.8% boost If you hold off for 12 months. So if you’re entitled to the full £175.20 flat-rate pension, deferring by a year means you’ll get an extra £10.15 a week
Bear in mind that you won’t pay national insurance contributions on your wages if you continue to work past state pension age, but you could end up paying tax on your weekly state pension depending on how much you earn.
Can I boost my state pension?
There are a number of ways to boost your state pension and increase your retirement income.
You can choose to make voluntary lump sum contributions to fill any gaps that you might have in your NIC record. It might be you had a job that paid too little to qualify, or your profits were too small as a self-employed person, or you were unemployed and didn’t claim benefits, or you were living abroad, but any gaps will mean you can’t claim the full amount of state pension. For the full basic state pension – for those who reached retirement age before April 2016 – 30 years of NICs are needed; under the new system, 35 full years is the requirement. You have until April 5, 2023 to cover the tax years from 2006-7 to 2015-16, after HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) extended the usual deadlines. To check your national insurance record, have a look at the HMRC website, where you can also find out if you are able to pay voluntary national insurance contributions and how much this will cost you. Contact the National Insurance helpline on 0300 200 3500 for more information. You may also be eligible for national insurance credits if you claim benefits because you cannot work, are unemployed or caring for someone full time.
Another way to increase the amount you receive in retirement is postponing or deferring your state pension. The longer you can leave it, the higher the payout you will receive when you do eventually claim. For those reaching state pension age on or after April 6, 2016, the payout increases every week that it is deferred, as long as you hold off for at least nine weeks. For each nine weeks deferred, the pension increases by 1%. This means that for every year you delay taking the state pension, it rises by just under 5.8%.
You may also be able to boost your pension if you’re married, divorced, widowed or in a civil partnership. You may be eligible to increase your basic state pension to £80.45 per week as a result of the contributions made by your current or former spouse or civil partner. You might also qualify for the additional state pension or, if you’re on a low income, pension credit.
The Pensions Advisory Service is a free, independent and impartial service that can help you if you are reaching state pension age and have any questions.