I hope someone can shed some light. I've been self-employed for many years. But in the last few years, I have also been employed part time, where I automatically pay into a pension scheme. This is not something I set up, it just automatically gets paid before my earnings hit my account, just like everybody else who works there.
As a self-employed person, I know I will be entitled to a state pension. I contacted them recently to find out how much I will be receiving. The lady told me and said, in x number amount of years I will have worked long enough to be entitled to this, and after that I will still have to pay National insurance, but the amount of pension won't increase any further.
Here's my question (which I forgot to ask her at the time): Is the pension I'm paying into via my employment also state pension (and therefore isn't adding to its value), or is it something different and will be added to the amount of state pension I will receive for my self-employed work?
Many thanks for reading.