To be shocked if this is true . State pension and benefits …?

[Springtimesoo]

I have worked all my life apart from
4 year degree( 3 year plus prof qualification )
and
a period at home when I had 2 dc under two and we could not afford nursery fees.

have just checked my pension forcast Which says that although I have paid 35 years in full , i will not get a full pension .

it seems that to get a full pension i need to pay just over 3k .

my friend , who is by choice long term unemployed. ( long story) says that she will get a full pension as she is on benefits .

how is that fair ? Its not true is it ?

It is confusing. I had to read everything a few times to get my head round it all.

Quit your job then and live off benefits and see how much easier and better your life is..

@Schnooze i’m 99.99% certain that you have got your assumptions wrong. The COPE figure is not deducted from your state pension.

or did you think you would receive £185 +COPE + occupational pension?

the COPE (Contracted Out Pension Estimate) represents the additional state pension you could have received if you hadn’t been a member of a contracted out pension scheme. But because you were contracted out you will get that amount as part of your occupational pension instead so you will get £185 + occupational pension

Yes I’m currently googling like mad. Can’t quite get my head around the reduced starting amount.

However most people who were contracted out will need more than 35 years of contributions to get the full £185. I think I need to pay 40, for example.

So what happens if you don’t pay 40 years?

No I’d never heard of a cope figure before today.

Isnt £185 the maximum you can get so what is all this additional stuff?

See this link

How it's calculated

The full new State Pension is £185.15 per week. What you’ll receive is based on your National Insurance record.

Valuing your National Insurance contributions and credits made before 6 April 2016
Your National Insurance record before 6 April 2016 is used to calculate your ‘starting amount’. This is part of your new State Pension.

Your starting amount will be the higher of either:

the amount you would get under the old State Pension rules (which includes basic State Pension and Additional State Pension)
the amount you would get if the new State Pension had been in place at the start of your working life
Your starting amount will include a deduction if you were contracted out of the Additional State Pension. You may have been contracted out because you were in a certain type of workplace, personal or stakeholder pension.

If your starting amount is less than the full new State Pension
You can get more State Pension by adding more qualifying years to your National Insurance record after 5 April 2016. You can do this until you reach the full new State Pension amount or reach State Pension age - whichever is first.

Each qualifying year on your National Insurance record after 5 April 2016 will add about £5.29 a week to your new State Pension. The exact amount you get is calculated by dividing £185.15 by 35 and then multiplying by the number of qualifying years after 5 April 2016.

Example

You had a starting amount from your National Insurance record before 6 April 2016 of £120 a week.

You have another 6 qualifying years on your National Insurance record after 5 April 2016 (each year adding about £5.29 a week to your State Pension) equalling £31.74 a week.

This adds up to about £151.74 a week for your State Pension. This figure may change as the starting amount is adjusted to account for inflation.
If your starting amount is more than the full new State Pension
The part of your starting amount which is above the full new State Pension is called your ‘protected payment’. This is paid on top of the full new State Pension.

Any qualifying years you have after 5 April 2016 will not add more to your State Pension.
You did not make National Insurance contributions or get National Insurance credits before 6 April 2016
Your State Pension will be calculated entirely under the new State Pension rules.

You’ll usually need at least 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record to get any State Pension.

You’ll need 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension.

You’ll get a proportion of the new State Pension if you have between 10 and 35 qualifying years.

Example

You have 20 qualifying years on your National Insurance record after 5 April 2016.

You divide £185.15 by 35 and then multiply by 20.

Your new State Pension will be about £105.80 per week.
Your new State Pension is more likely to be calculated in this way if you were born after the year 2000 or became a resident of the UK after 2015.

Then you get less than whatever the max amount is by the time you get your pension.

Sorry, I would get less. But I will be paying the NI so will get the full state pension.

Hence what I was originally saying - so in effect a deduction.

Thanks guys for being so patient with me.

God, it is midnight and I'm talking about pensions still. Off to bed now!

The additional element was for those people who were not in an occupational pension scheme. They paid the contracted in NI contribution as they were contracted into the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS). SERPS was not the same thing as the state pension. It was an additional element. You were contracted out so don’t qualify for the additional pension. You truly have not been fiddled out of anything.

if you don’t understand any of this then please go and speak to an independent financial advisor who hopefully can explain it to you

If claiming child benefit or carers your stamp for that year is paid.
Unfortunately, due to illness I now can not work and I have tried lots of different avenues. I worked whilst my children were little and whilst they were growing up. I hate not working!! It's not always a choice!! But I see plenty who have never worked, and I get where you are coming from OP

Dh hasn’t got time to make up extra years to compensate for his £51 cope figure so will get less than the £185.

Hence why I’m suddenly realising we’ll be much worse off than we originally expected.

I only have a £19 cope figure so hopefully I’ll sort that out over the next few years and thus will get the full £185.

Agh. It really isn't a deduction. You are not losing anything. But my head is going to explode soon🤯 so I really am off to bed.

No he won’t. The COPE figure is not a deduction from the state pension

See the picture below “…this will not affect your state pension forecast…”

I know in reality I’m not being fiddled as the money will be coming via a different investment vehicle aka private pension. Just a realisation that our total retirement income will be less than expected as we expected the full £185 and the private pension. It’s our ignorance but however you dress it up our retirement income will be less due to dh”s age and not enough time to pay more years. Which I realised today.

Thanks again for your patience guys.

I think you are overthinking this Schmooze

I don't think that's true! People on benefits are typically offered worse housing in more socially deprived or run down areas with higher crime rates and poorer facilities inc health care. I thunk being in that env typically reduces life expectancy by 20 years.

But coming back to tge OP, I think what you've found out is correct. It's a farce it really is.

IClaudine · Yesterday 23:54
Then you get less than whatever the max amount is by the time you get your pension.

You will get the full £185 and the private pension. Where does it say that you won’t?

@Springtimesoo

Agree with @Moonicorn

It doesn’t surprise me although all sorts of excuses will be made for her here.

According to Mumsnet everyone who gets benefits deserves them & there's always an excuse for why they shouldn't worry about working.

I think it's also the case that when someone who has never worked and so never owned a house needs to rent they still get housing benefit. To be fair it wouldn't be possible to survive on a state pension if you had rent to pay. But it's hard to take when you have struggled to pay a mortgage & put money aside for a pension.

Dh won’t be paying enough years.

Anyway I’ve got to sleep now. Sleep tight everyone.

@Schnooze

The COPE estimate is not related to the number of qualifying years and isn’t an indication of a shortfall of qualifying years . If his records on the government gateway show he’s on target to receive £185 then that is what he will get. The state pension is calculated as (£185.15/35)* qualifying years

£185 divided by 35 x number of qualifying years