State Pension questions. Brain frazzled

[Zenana]

My aunt is coming up to state pension age in a fortnight and yesterday she was telling me she's going to get "£800 and something" every month from mid March. This I understand to be the full state pension.

She's divorced from my uncle who remarried and has since died, and her partner (they didn't marry) died during COVID and she gets some of his workplace pension. Some of that goes to another beneficiary, but she's never been told who this is.

Before her partner died she received UC and PIP. The UC was reduced to account for the private pension she received.

She's only paid national insurance between 1976 and 1990.

What she doesn't know is if the £800 is going to replace the UC or add to it. She then said "Belinda next door" had stopped talking to her as she's the same age, has worked full time since age 17 and also will get £800 a month and doesn't think it fair when one person paid national insurance for 50 years and the other for 14 years. My brain can't compute this. She wouldn't show me the letter she'd received (I think she's lost it) so I can't comment to her.

Full state pension is £221 plus change per week , if she’s seriously only paid 14 yrs of NI she will not be getting a full pension . Did she get some years through receiving CB ?

She also received about £6000 at age 60 from her workplace pension though she stopped working in 1990. She spent that on her partner's funeral. Perhaps she needs to check if she's entitled to monthly pension from there too.

Uc will stop as soon as she reaches state pension age. The new state pension is around £222 a week and is usually paid four weekly unless you request it is paid weekly. If she is still on PIP and lives alone and no-one claims carers allowance for caring for her then she may be eligible for some Pension credit top up but that would also depend on whether she has savings and how much her late husband's private pension amount which she receives is. The Age Uk online benefit calculator is fairly straightforward to use.
means tested benefit like Pension credit, council tax support etc will look at her state pension, any private pensions and savings.

Of course yes. My cousin was born in 1990 so that will count I imagine? He went to university in 2008 so presumably it'd stop then. So this would give her 32: years of NI contributions?

If she claimed Child Benefit for a child born in 1990, she should have received HRP for 16 years. The best thing she can do is check her National Insurance record online.

I think you only got NI contributions until the child turned 12 unless it was different back then. If she's been unwell and disabled for years then she may get NI credits due to other benefits she was claiming maybe?

She can go on government gateway and get her state pension forecast. She hasn't made enough contributions to get full pension. Then she needs to contact the private pension providers to see what proportion of thise she will get. That is the only way to find out.

She should also definitely look into whether she has any private pensions to take as these can take some months to track don and apply for and if she does try to claim any means tested benefits and they are aware of unclaimed pensions she is likely to be treated as though she has that income.

Yep she has mobility issues and is registered partially sighted owing to complications with diabetes. I think she has a reduced TV licence payment and pays nominal council tax, something like £9.50 a month.

Sounds like she's already getting council tax support. She may need to re-apply for that once she starts getting her state pension, or at least update them with her pension figures. She would get it all covered if she qualifies for Pension credit when she turns state pension age.

Thanks everyone. I can't help her with the woman next door, but I'll have a go at the rest. Her son is working in Australia so he's not really able to. Thanks.

No, you don’t get full 18 years of contributions paid. It’s currently 12 years. She needs to check her forecast.

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

I suspect even if she wasn’t working, she (rightly imo) still got NI from her benefits. So she has been contributing even if she wasn’t working.

She won’t get UC anymore but will keep her PIP.

Pension credit is available fir those who get less than the max state pension (similar to UC really) but as she is getting full state pension plus part of her pension, she won’t qualify for that.

It was different back then - HRP NI was paid for same time frame as Child Benefit ( which itself was not subject to maximum income level) . Payable until child was 16, or 18 if in full time secondary education. It replaced the combination of Family Allowance and child tax allowance. So she could have up to 18 years credited if her 1990 DS stayed for 6th form.

UC gives Class 3 NI credits, so she would have years covered for any full year she has been claiming it. Other benefits like ESA (and formerly Incapacity Benefit) would also give NI credits. So I can see that she could be entitled to a full state pension with 14 years employment, Child Benefit credits under the old system (which could cover up to 18 years as mentioned), plus a few years on other benefits.

@Zenana
Are you aware that she does have to claim the state pension, it doesn't happen automatically.
I've easy to do, I've just helped a neighbour do it. She was 3 months late in claiming and although it was backdated it was a worry for her until it was sorted.
Once I sent the form back it was sorted within a week.
However if you don't want any gaps she should apply for it now

She should have received a letter about 6 months before her retirement date to inform her what she would be receiving and to go onto work and pensions website to advise her bank details for her payments to start.

It's worth checking for pension credit and council tax reduction as if she is on PIP, she might get a severe disability premium which raises your threshold for benefits.

Op, best advice is when you know how much state pension she will be getting, plus info about other income and capital, get a benefit check for her.