State Pension higher than I thought

[VanessaShanessaJenkins99]

I am hoping someone can shed some light on my dads state pension situation- he is 66 in January and will be retiring - i helped him apply for his state pension online and he has received a letter telling him what he will be getting - at the end of January it will £936 and then every 4 weeks it will be £974 - it doesn't say anything else on the letter other than that - we thought the state pension was 221 per week paid every 4 weeks? I dont want him to be receiving this amount and then it turns out its wrong and him have a massive bill to repay 🤔

prob Because he paid into SERPS in earlier years of his career. This was a way of increasing your state pension if you weren’t in a ‘works’ pension.

My husband retired three years ago at age 66 and receives £939 every 4 weeks.

We cant verify his identity as he cant use his driving licence as its not a photo card one and hes never had a passport 🤦‍♀️

It could be comprised of SERPs and earnings related etc. it sounds about right.

I cant think that he would have made any decisions like that- hes essentially worked for 2 companies his whole life earning minimum wage - he dosent have a clue about anything like this and i cant imagine him paying extra in his younger days or opting into a scheme- he says he hasn't but surely something has happened along the way! I have emailed the DWP so will see what they say and see if they can help get to get him set up for the government gateway 🙈

The new state pension is £884 every 4 weeks, but if he us getting more, and he hadn't deferred the start date, he may have some residual SERPS on top. Best think to do is to go onto the gov.uk site and check it. He will need to go through security checks but worth doing to be sure

My husband gets more than me because he took his pension at a later age.

Check he doesn't have any private pensions either through his previous employers

If a spouse reached state retirement before 2016 and has sine died there may also still be part widow pension.

Did he delay his date of retirement? For every 9 weeks your Dad delays his pension from his 66th birthday he'll get an increase of 1% in his state pension.

Serps won't make a difference unless his employer contracted out and that would reduce his pension unless he worked enough years to counteract that.

Is he entitled to receive a spouse's pension?

Hes never been married - he is 66 next week 🤷🏼‍♀️

Look at the “if you’re getting more” section here.

It’s likely he has some additional State pension if he doesn’t have a work pension and doesn’t remember choosing to “contract out” into a personal pension,

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get

The pension isn't £221 a week, that is just the theoretical maximum for someone starting their contribution history after 2016. Everybody retiring at the moment is in transitional arrangements and we will be for decades. He clearly has entitlement to SERPS and S2P which has boosted his pension.

If you go online you can renew his drivers license. The renewed license will be a photocard one.

If you’re getting more than £221.20 a week
If you paid into the Additional State Pensionn_ before 2016 and would have got more State Pension under the old rules, you’ll get a ‘protected payment’. This is paid on top of the full rate of new State Pension.

I started receiving my state pension 3 years ago. I have £914 every 4 weeks. I was surprised at the time to see I was going to have around £7 a week more than expected. I phoned the pension service to double check in case it was an error. The unexpected additional amount was referred to as protected payment. TBH I’ve forgotten now the explanation but was assured it was correct.

You’ll find the explanation of the extra protected payment here on the gov.uk website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/your-new-state-pension-explained/your-state-pension-explained

My mum gets a crazy amount. I think she gets pip and pension credit but it's almost double these amounts 😲. And housing/council tax in top. I was genuinely shocked when I found out. I will be more realistic about what I will get.

I get £974 every 4 weeks because of SERPS/SSP2 If you were not contracted out of these schemes by your employer you paid slightly higher contributions before 2016 and get more now. My DH had a public sector career and gets less than full state pension but a much better work pension.

Very interesting texted different amounts. Hope you get his driving licence sorted.

Will he have any other income once retired? If not, they may have included some pension credit in the sum. If he's single, pension credit will top up the weekly amount to £218.15.

Not really true either - if you were contracted out prior to the introduction of the new State Pension in 2016 the fact that you were contracted out (and so paid a lower rate of NI) will have been taking into account when they calculated your 'starting amount' 6th April, which may mean you need more that the headline 35 years NI contributions to reach £221, but nothing gets deducted from your final pension amount.

The people who were previously contracted out and have had time to build up to the £221 were the real winners with the change - paid lower NI before 2016 in return for a private pension, and can now get the full state pension on top.

I get really confused about this. I was contracted out for around 10/15 years in the 90s/early 00s and if I understand correctly that amount was paid into my personal pension instead. I had assumed I would get a reduced state pension due to the years I was contracted out but I reached my full 35 years of NI contributions last year (at age 56) and my government gateway says I will now get full state pension of £221.20 per week at age 67. I have been worried this is wrong and I will actually get less. It sounds from what is being said here that I will get the full amount but just not any extra from SERPS/S2P contributions - is that correct?

@VanessaShanessaJenkins99 Trust me he wouldnt even know how to turn a computer on - 🙈 - im sure we will get to the bottom of it :)

My hubby is exactly the same! I do all his online banking and anything else needing doing, he says that he has secretaries to do it all!! 😃

I paid about 42 or so years contributions and was contracted out for around 10/15 years I think, I retired early at 62, started work at 16, missed about 3 years contributions and get about a £1 a week less state pension so if you work until 67 you will have 46 years contributions which should cover it.

I didn't make up the contributions as I would have had to pay about £700-800 or so to get £1 a week extra.