Credits required for state pension

[NotADailyMailJournalist]

Hello all

Apparently you need 35 years' credits to get the full state pension.

I'm nearly 41. I have 3 years' credits from staying on at school after 16.

And then I have worked full time all year every year since.

So I only have 12 more years credits required, according to my Nat Ins record.

So although I won't RECEIVE the state pension until late 60s/70, I only have to work to early/mid 50s to get enough credits for it.

Is that right?!

People talk a lot about the state pension being means tested or the age being raised.

But there's no talk of increasing the number of years credits you need?

Thanks for any thoughts!

There used to a lot more, so much so people going int higher education had to make up the difference. They have been lowered a couple of times, unlikely to be raised again.

Yes, that's right. I'm already well over the 35 years to qualify and have another 5 years before I can get my state pension.

Meanwhile... I still have to pay NI contributions.

I needed 39 years of NI CONTRIBUTIONS for a basic state pension - men needed 44.
This was changed in 2006 I think to 30 years and then changed again to 35. I doubt it will change again

I also missed out on the credits for home responsibility but on the upside I was able to retire at 60 (on the old lower SP) and I was able to benefit from SERPs.

I am now eagerly awaiting reaching 80 and getting an extra 25p per week for being that old which is more of an insult than if they had not decided to award it as it has never increased with inflation - still 25p!)

I have 7 years to pay, which will take me to 62. Then I believe I’ll only have to pay NI.
Keep a close eye on it as the goal posts move all the time.
I had to buy 7 years as I was out the country for ages.
A lot of women let this slip when they are SAHM. It’ll be £1k plus by the time I retire I reckon. It’s not to be sniffed at!
My advice would also be try and put as much into your co. Pension as you can.
At my place of work we recently got a pay rise, and lost a big chunk of it to tax. So, we went to payroll and set up an increase in pension contribution which brought our tax down, plus the govt. pays 25% on top of your contribution.

The 35 years for a pension, only applies to people starting contributing after 2016, prior to that it is more complicated. You could need many more years if, for example, you have been contracted out. We will be in a transitional arrangements for decades.

Yes that's correct because they know many people have to take time out. I have 4 more years!

Brahumbug, should I then check mine, as it says I have to pay 35 years and I have contributed way before 2016. It did originally say 30, then all of a sudden it said 35.

Given most people will take out far, far more than they put into the state pension…

… continuing to pay it beyond the 35 years seems entirely reasonable.

Just to add that some of my friends the same age as me, born in the same year, have 30, or 33 years to pay, and mine is 35. Why would that be?

I'm already 62 and started work in 1979. I've bloody well had enough. If they hadn't moved the goalposts, I'd have retired two years ago.

Female friends of mine only a little older than me retired at 60. I got caught in the switchover. DH retired 5 years ago.

My workplace pensions had 60 as a retirement date, but since the income from those would not have been enough to live on, I couldn't take that option. I've had to defer them.

How do you find out what you have left to qualify?

State pension started increasing from 60 in 2010 gradually until 65 in 2018. So your friends who got the state pension at 60 must be 74 ish now even 65 is 6 years ago.

They probably had enough private pension to eek out the bridging years. Which is perfectly legal if you save for it.

That's not how it works, and it never has done, ever since the state pension was introduced. There has always been a deficit. It isn't a question of taking out more than you put in, because your contributions have already been spent on paying other people's pensions. Our pension will be funded in the future by people whose NI contributions will be higher than ours were.

For women born between 6 April 1950 to 5 April 1960 its a bit of a mess - or officially known. as the "Transitional period"

There could be a whole host of reasons for this.

One example is:
6 April 1953 -
if you were born before this date, you qualify for the 'old' state pension
If you were born after this date, you qualify under the 'new' state pension.
So could have a situation where Friend A was born on 5th April 1953 and Friend B was born on 7th April 1953 and they both have different qualifying rules for the start pension.

If you look up the WASPI wonen they go into far more into detail.

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Thanks to SERPS, I’m still paying NI contributions almost 50 years after I started work.

That's because the NI contributions you are paying are not for your pension. They are to pay the pension of those claiming it at the moment. It is not a pension pot in that sense like your private pension is.

You should check on the government gateway. Once you have registered you can check your current contribution position and pension protection, how many years you need to reach the maximum.

That should say pension projection, not protection!

What is wrong with that? Thanks to SERPS, you will get a higher pension.

I had been contracted out for a few years and had about 44 - 45 years contributions, I can't remember exactly but well over 35 and it still was about £50 short a year off full pension

NI is really just a tax. The fact that is used for eligibility for some contribution confuses some into thinking there is some sort of savings pot or contract. There isn’t- it’s just a benefit

I was contracted out of SERPS (by my employer) so my state pension stays the same, and my employee pension is meant to cover the difference.
My employee pension entitlement on retirement was unaffected. However, it is linked up to max of 5%, except for the part which corresponds to the SEEPS element, which is indexed up to max 3%.

I would have been happy to pay more NI at the time and declined the salary-sacrifice-to-pension loophole when offered.

So having been forced into early retirement, my employee pension hasn’t kept pace with inflation as well as it would have done and I still have to find £800 per year for voluntary NI.

I do appreciate that overall I’m one of the lucky ones.

I worked for over 46 years. 9 years part time as I am a carer for my Mother. Due to serps I still needed to pay an extra year approx £800. This was to get the full state pension at 66. I did this and paid monthly I think it was worth it. It was complicated because although I worked in the same place and same LA the serps payments stopped after a while. I think it amounted to about £3 a week extra.

I'm 4 years short of NI contributions. Have recently paid the first off as it was less than £300.

I did speak to someone from HMRC and he advised that I only pay 2/3 outstanding and £800+ each as paying the third would only give £1 or so extra a month and wasn't worth it.

It's always worth checking.

Your employer didn't contract you out, the pension scheme that you were a member of was contracted out. This meant both you and your employer paid less national insurance up to 2016 when contracting out ended.