Can my pension forecast be right? Am I reading it wrong?

[Maggiemargherita]

Does this mean I will get a full state pension with 3 more years of contributions? If so I don’t understand why. I’m 44.

@QuantumPanic thanks for the link, will check it out

@Choux thanks

Can
Someone give me the link to check mine please?

www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Some of my NI credits from my teens are interesting given the number of weeks in a year 🤔. It’s a bit outing but I was a teen mum, working and also in education. I wonder if this gives me extra credits?

Thank you

You don't stop paying NI once you've hit the qualifying years to receive full pension .You carry on paying NI for the duration of your working career .
You receive state pension at age 66 ( soon to be 67 and then who knows ! )
Your NI contributions are not your pension pot , you are paying for those that get pension now . When you retire at the qualifying age those paying NI then will be paying for you .
There is not a pension pot that just had your name on it .

You don't actually get any extra from that as a year is either full or not, but probably yes in your record there's some double crediting.

I would advise people to check that the forecast isn’t based on them making contributions right up until their retirement age. My forecast showed the 6 full years between my early retirement and my retirement age as incomplete years which I needed to make up to receive the full pension.

Taking into account my working years, child benefit and carers allowances I had 35 years of contributions but my projection still showed a shortfall.

I was a civil servant contracted out so that might have a bearing.

Yes, and it is unclear because the NI schedule does not indicate which years we're contracted out. My understanding is that I need 35 full and non contracted out years and it is impossible to tell which were contracted out without the payslip codes and I no longer have payslips going back to the 80s and 90s.

You don't need payslips. Your forecast on the page for state pension will say what you are forecasted to get and how many more years you need to pay in order to get the full amount. If it says that your forecast says it cannot be improved them that means you have paid enough qualifying years. If not there is a section if you scroll down that will say how many more years you need. It will say something along the lines if you needs to pay another x number of years between now and date in the future.

being a teen mom will give you the child benefit which makes up shortfall. I think previously it went up to like age 15 of the child too (now 12) .

It is interesting as mine (similar age)
I have the 3 yrs thats are autocredited
Then uni gap
Then 1-2 yrs struggling geting a job (but couldnt get job seekers)
Then worked till 2011 when dc1 born (but contracted out all that time...)

So i have like 4 years gap. Plus contracted out. I had the opportunity to fill those gaps but that ran out and unfortunately i cant now.

But luckily the CB from 2011 will avoid the contracting out from 2011 (but also sahp anyway)

However obviously the contracting out went into private pension but i can see how much is in there (say £29k). And thats had years to grow (from say 2003).
I presumably paid about 1k a year into the pension. Plus company paid in. Yet still only 29k. I cant see the contracting out amount ni from gov in my private pension obviously but im not convinced doing that was in my best interests. As even reading about the CO its unclear if i will get less state pension. Having 2011 to pension age is of 36 years still to make up the CO which i think is how they assume i will still get the full pension.

Dp was not contracted out so probably doesnt need to pay for as many more years as me. Possibly 13. Less the auto 3 so 10

I may end up paying for extra years directly if i retire early.

I think the whole system is a bit tricky as in contentious
As contracted out or not
Unemployed or on CB etc automatically credited.

presumably women teachers etc who were contracted out but had the CB arent affected by the CO for those years?

i guess i think uni should be still autocredited. It was hard at early 20s to decide to pay thousands to fill the gaps when i had 35 years of working life easily at that point. Talk of pensions not existing. Dp not having paid to make his up was very likeoy the right choice for him.

With filling any gaps - that money is gone and gov coukd put pension age up to 75+ who knows. If you put money in private pension getting the 25% tax back. At least you can get that and it be inherited.

That contradicts the pensions advice provided by Steve Webb and Martin Lewis. The years of NI stated on the website do not indicate contracted out years which do not count towards the full qualifying years. It is the full amount, providing no years were contracted out.

I'm really unsure what to do. I have 5 years missing (from when I was studying) and it's saying I need 16 years to get full pension. I'm 44 so this would take me to 60. Is it worth paying off a couple of years (about £1000) to give myself a bit more leeway before pension age? I've had a look online for advice but can't find anything that helps.

Yes, but with the New State Pension it will show on the page for your state pension. It dosent matter which years it was really. It will say what you are forecasted to get (full amount at moment is £221.00) so for example yours may say that at this moment you have accrued enough contributions to receive £180 then underneath you will see how many more future years you need to pay before SP age.
You will have had a recalculation done in 2016 when the New State Pension came in.
What is your forecast showing?

Sorry edited as replied to wrong person.
Do you plan to work until state pension age?

For state pension calculation purposes, a 'full year' is a 'full year' regardless of whether you were contracted out or not.

Where your understanding is wrong is that you think you need 35 years to reach the maximum - that only applies if you started your working life after the new State Pension was introduced in 2016 and contracting in and out was done away with.

The number of years you need will depend on your individual contributions record and could be anything from 29 to 50 years, which is why everyone born last centrury needs to check their own individual forecast to see where they stand.

My understanding was that contracting out only affected SERPS and so only affects people born before 1953.

My bigger concern is the accuracy of the forecasts as for quite a few years DWP site was giving out incorrect and misleading info (one of the many issues affecting WASPI women who were not only presented with a late change but were misled on the value of the pensions they would receive).

I remember looking at it when the WASPI shortfall was in the press and sure enough my forecast was wrong and optimistic. Friends and colleagues then checked women seemed to be given disproportionately incorrect info which suggested to me at the time that the failure was in calculating women's more chequered careers and pay records at the time.

I won't be dependent on the state pension but if I was I would be cautious about trusting the data unless I'd checked what changes have been made in recent years.

When DH went through this we found the gov helpline people really helpful, their advice was really clear and simple. They checked his records and worked out which years were the cheapest to pay and would have the most impact. They also check if you have had any caring duties over the years as this can gain credits.

Yes, exactly this.

That is not correct in OP's case that she will be short after some 50 yrs contributions!

I wouldn't. I am in a similar situation with some missing years in the 90s/early 00s but I will reach the minimum requirement before age 60 if I can keep working that long. Given that my state pension age is 67 I see no reason to pay any extra contributions because even if something happens between now and age 67 to reduce my ability to work I will need to eat and live somehow so chances are I will be making NI contributions somehow because the various benefits that exist if one is unable to work due to illness or disability, caring for someone or having a limited ability to work all come with National Insurance Credits - the only circumstances under which I wouldn't be getting the final few years of NI contributions would be if I chose to stop working without qualifying for any such benefits and that's not going to happen.

At the moment! No plans to retire early (I wish)

Thank you - I'll try giving them a ring. Sorry reply above was for an earlier message but I hadn't figured out how to quote!

Good point - I'd forgotten about benefits adding contributions. That's the main thing I was worried about, being unable to work for some reason.