AIBU to not know about state pension?

[1FineDane]

Say you moved to the UK aged 50 and you hit retirement age. Are you then entitled to full state pension or is it proportional to what you've paid into the pot/pro rata per year spent paying in?

Sorry, just place marking so I can use the links tomorrow

So, if you were 50 when you arrived in the UK, you will need to work until you are 85 to get a full pension.

Not quite, you only pay NI (and build up state pension) until your state pension age. You can work until 85 but you will not pay NI, or build up state pension credits once you reach state pension age.

You need 35 years to get the full state pension, and at least 10 to get any state pension.

If you look after a child (I.e grandchild) while their parents work you can use their NI credits. If you claim certain benefits you will build up NI credits, if you work earning over a certain limit you will pay NI and build up credits.

You can also pay voluntary contributions if you aren't working or not building up NI credits and in most cases you can pay for any missing years in the last 6 years.

If you worked in a country which has/had an agreement with the UK then you can use those credits to count towards your state pension. How this works in practice depends on the country you worked in.

Say you moved to the UK aged 50 and you hit retirement age.

The main question is, what did you do between 50 and state pension age. If you did nothing then you may not be entitled to anything.

State pension age is 68+ for some people
Depends on age

Will you be entitled to a state pension from whatever country you lived in before you moved to the UK?

I know that British pensioners who live in places like Spain still get their UK pension because they're often on TV complaining about the effects of the exchange rate or how they will be badly affected by a no Brexit, despite openly admitting to voting to leave 'because there are too many immigrants these days'. You couldn't make it up .

35 years of full contributions in the bag. Excellent.

The link that a pp posted in like the 2nd or 3rd comment was exactly the right link and I checked mine in about 0.5 seconds (you do need to sign in somehow - same sort of ID as you use for childcare tax account etc) but it takes literally minutes.

Advise anyone wondering to follow that link.
Thanks pp!

OP, try Google, rather than MN. We're not your search engines. 👌

I have 34 years of contributions so far (my Dad made voluntary contributions for me for a few years from 16 and this has been added to my work and child caring years, and for my Dad’s foresight I am so grateful), and have one more year to go to qualify (but am 50 so in my case have 17 more years to work).

I have two questions - there was one year when I didn’t make the full contribution - will that one year penalise the amount I receive in the end?

And, once you hit the 35 years, do you have to carry on paying NI contributions every year until you hit 67 or 68 (or whatever age they raise it to) in order to retain your right to that full pension?

Mine is currently forecast as roughly £168 a week.

Of course there may not be a state pension at some point, and then what?

Yes you keep paying NI if you reach 35 years & you are still working

Yes but if say you then went abroad for 5 years and paid none, would that somehow penalise you despite your already accumulated 35 years?

Yes you do have to keep contributing while you are of working age, and in the nicest possible way, your dad making extra contributions was a misguided waste of money, a bit like those well meaning parents who pay off their children's student loans, when there's a good chance most of it will be written off anyway.

You're already there contributions wise with nearly 17 years to go as you have over 50 years to put in 35 years contributions and you get credits linked to CB for any time you were a SAHP, and even part time work above a certain income level counts too.

i have looked at my pension forecast,
seems probably better to put your money under the mattress!

i had one year when i did not contribute enough, yet i was at college!

National insurance isn't all about pensions, it's just another income tax really, so you can't look at the amount you contribute and work out an investment return.

You also get the same basic state pension whether you were a low or high earner, despite vastly different contribution levels so obviously not linked to the amount contributed.

and in the nicest possible way, your dad making extra contributions was a misguided waste of money,

We lived abroad at the time and he didn’t know that I would eventually move to the UK and work. He probably hoped that had I stayed abroad, I would have myself taken over the voluntary contributions.

Still grateful because it is one less thing to worry about amongst many.

I understand that of course everyone still pays NI contributions if they work after having qualified.

I think I might have seen something somewhere about years without NI contributions detracting from a pension even if it has already been fully qualified for. Which seems odd.

Just wondering how it works. If you take a sabbatical say.

I am 65 years old. I started paying NI when I had my Saturday job aged 14. I have always worked, even when at university, when I had part-time jobs and temped in the holidays.

When they moved the state pension age for women from 60 to 65, it meant I had 51 years of contributions. I still work, but as I'm at retirement age I no longer have to pay NI. I think I've done my bit anyway!

But I'm surprised the OP didn't just Google instead of asking MNetters to do all the work for her.

The system is a mess call into a citizen advice centre they will advise you and help make sense of things.

But I'm surprised the OP didn't just Google instead of asking MNetters to do all the work for her

That's a common Mumsnet oddity. Want to know some information that's clearly set out on an official website and has been checked by multiple people to ensure that it's accurate?

Why on earth would you check the official website that publishes said information when you can ask a collection of anonymous random strangers, half of which post utter crap so anything that is accurate is lost within.

I've been looking at this recently because I lived out of the UK for 17 years and am now a SAHM and hitting 50. I had a stress fest over this.

It used to be the case that anyone who paid a smidgen in NI got a state pension of some sort. Now you have to have paid in a minimum of 10 years to get anything. Then, depending on how many years you have, you get a pro rata or full pension.

The figure is £4.80 a week for every year you have paid in. Remember, you need to have 10 years and over to qualify. So, 4 years ago I checked and I had 10 years of NI before I left the UK. Phew.

So my pension if taken today would be £48.00 a week (£4.80 x 10).

Predictions are based on what you have paid so far and what it would be if you pay NI for the remaining, outstanding years to reach 35 NI years so I do not think they are accurate. I want to know what it is as of today.

When I moved back to the UK I heard that as a SAHM who doesn't qualify for CB, I could still register for CB, not get the cash and get NI contributions. I registered for CB, ticked the "don't want the cash" box and now I have 3 more years of NI. By the way, you can claim NI as a SAHM until youngest is 12.

So now my state pension as of today is 13 years of NI x £4.80 = £62.40 a week

According to the gov website, I can buy back 9 years. I've got 6 years to buy it back. This will cost me about £6K to buy, but I will be entitled to an extra £2,246.40 a year state pension if I do. So if I live till just shy of 71 I will have broken even. It's a gamble, but I think the alternative (pensioner poverty) is too risky. When I buy it back I will then have 22 years so my pension would be:

22 x £4.80 = £105.66 a week as of today

So, at 50, I will have 22 years. I am now working p/t and looking to up it so I could reach full state pension with consistent NI contributions. When I looked at this I panicked because I thought everyone got a state pension with minor differences. Not so and TBH I realise now that it is a pension scheme like any other and you have to pay into it. It's not a benefit like some of us think. You can't just move to the UK and get it. As a British Citizen who lived overseas, I am not entitled to it. I have to pay in as does everyone. Its not really any different to a normal pension plan except it is run by the government, is a bit shit and you won't get pay outs in advance or pass it on to your next of kin, although I believe you can inherit some of your partners state pension if you know what you are doing.

The state pension doesn't look a lot but that is not the way to view it. I see it as a very important base that can be built on. So if I reach the £168.60 a week, £674.40 a month, anything else I invest in a private pension is on top of that. With this base you only need to top it up by £325.60 privately to get £1K a month or great if you can top it up £825.60 to get £1,500 a month. I also want to put some distance between the 10 qualifying years and my own amount because I don't trust the government. They will move the goal posts by the time I retire.

OP, are you British? Have you lived here before? Have you paid any NI? Do you have 10 years? You may be able to buy some years to get you over the 10 and then get work to add to it.

Sorry for long post and hope my figures are correct.

I know that British pensioners who live in places like Spain still get their UK pension because they're often on TV complaining
What channel are these people on?

Christ almighty. God forbid I actually dare to ask a question!
Now I'm going to send some of you into orbit and ask another one (sorry google - you just ain't that clever).
Say you live in a council property, so haven't paid off a mortgage etc. by pension age, does your council rent come out of that weekly allowance then or what?

Sorry, an a amendment to paragraph 5.

Predictions are based on what you have paid to date and the number of years left till retirement with the assumption that you will be paying NI every year till then. They are not an accurate prediction. I Amy not work some of those years and not contribute.

What a delight you are OP. I'm sure people will take the trouble to answer your next query.

So, at 50, I will have 22 years. I am now working p/t and looking to up it so I could reach full state pension with consistent NI contributions

I thought a PP said that it didn’t matter about working part/full time as long as you were paying NI contributions?

What channel are these people on?
On the news re Brexit, on 'buying abroad' tv shows etc...