I know I’m being thick but can you reassure me? (State pension)

[oakkiln]

A year ago I followed The MSE advice and got my husband to check his state pension for missing years.

The letter we got back from DWP said his forecast was £203.85 a week which I believe was the full state pension at the time of the letter.

Is this “this is your state pension if you don’t contribute anything else” or “this is your state pension if you keep paying NI until you retire in 8 years”

Sorry for the daft question!

You can find out here :
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

As I understand it probably the latter but as PP says it's easy enough to check on line.

Not thick at all

It assumes that you will continue paying national insurance contributions until you reach pension age

If your partner is wanting to retire before reaching pension age, it's possible his state pension entitlement will be lower (but not certain - it sounds like he's approaching pension age so if he has worked most of his life already it's pretty likely he's already paid enough for a full state pension)

You can use the gov.uk website to check what his entitlement would be if he retired now (mine shows I'll get a full state pension of I work another 25 years, but only about £60 a week if I retire now, because I'm fairly young)

He can also call the government pensions helpline and someone can talk him through it

www.gov.uk/contact-pension-service

Ot should say on the forecast.

It.

As above.
Gov.Gateway is by far the easiest and most reliable way to see your SP forecast.
Everyone should register/log on to keep a check on NI, SP, tax etc.

I think it's the latter.
I wasn't sure if my quote was taking account of my co tracked out years so I rang them. It was a bit kf a long queue but the person I spoke to was very helpful.

It will all depend on how many years he has paid. Some people have paid enough years before they get to pension age. So they could stop paying and still get full pension.

As others have said the online forecast will tell him his personal position.

My pension forecast says the max I can get is £221.20pw assuming I contribute another 8 years before my state pension age. If I contribute nothing else it’s £175.51pw. I can see that on the government gateway, as well as looking back through each year’s contribution.

How old is he? And how many ‘full years’ does he have?

You need 35 full years for full state pension. That can be from being in education under 19, from paid work (when you’ve paid NI) or from receiving certain benefits.

If he’s 45 (for example), he will have 23 years to go until he’s 68 (his state pension age). So as long as he has at least 12 full years already, he will get full state pension if he pays NI (or gets it on benefits) for however many years he needs to make it to 35.

Thank you everyone. He doesn’t have a passport or driving licence as ID to join the Government Gateway so had to phone and request his pension forecast by letter.

He has just turned 60 and has 20 year's of NI from child benefit and then carers allowance. He worked full time for 12 years before that (that’s when I met him - he worked before then too but it was VERY patchy and mostly YTS schemes). Maybe with the odd gap of a month or two between jobs but nothing significant.

I suppose I was worried the child benefit or carers allowance hadn’t been taken into account and given him NI years but I suppose looking at the forecast it has.

Thank you everyone. He doesn’t have a passport or driving licence as ID to join the Government Gateway so had to phone and request his pension forecast by letter.

I opened my Gateway account with no photo ID.
No passport and still had a green paper driving license but my ID checks went through ok and I got access.
Seem to recall it was just a case of providing a copy of birth certificate, utility bill, bank statement, P60 etc.

You can phone up and ask them to set you up a gateway account. Then it’s so much easier to log in and check your history. It lists every year and whether you’ve paid enough NI that year or not. It sets out a clear green bar at the top which shows how far you’ve contributed to the full state pension amount and how many years you have left to build up contributions.

As long as he has had 35 years he will get full pension. So as you say he had 20 years then 12 years on top he only needs 3 full years to get it.

If he has contributions starting before 2016 it may only be 30 years for full pension.

This is only the case for people who were born from 2000 onwards anyone else will have a personalised forecast which could mean they need anything from 29 to 49 years.
A calculation was done for everyone when the new state pension came into effect in 2016. How many years needed would depend on numerous factors for each individual.
OP the easiest way to find out is to follow the link above and go to the government gateway where all the information will be on his page.

Not necessarily. As he is aged 60 he could need anything from 29 to 49 years. The 35 years only applies to people with no NO record before 2016.

And it may be as much as 49 depending on his circumstances . The 30 years was for the old basic state pension which would not apply to him as he is only 60.

OP really the best thing to do is check on the government gateway. You dont need a driving licence or passport. There are ways round it.
You are getting lots of incorrect advice on here. Mumsnet really isn't the best place to ask as so many people have the 35 years stuck in their heads and don't realise that they are giving wrong information.
Money saving expert forum has a pensions thread with a dedicated state pension section. That would be a better bet than here for accurate info. There are some very knowledgeable people posting on there.

Everyone gets the state pension at the time they reach the age. If he's paid his full NI when he reaches that age he gets the full amount. If he's not paid enough NI he can top them up but I think there's an April deadline to do so. Get on that link above quick smart. You just need NI number.

Incorrect. Not everyone needs 35 years. It depends when they started paying NI contributions. People keep spreading this misinformation.

I know. I wish people that didn't know what they were talking about would stop posting on these threads.
Mumsnet is the last place to aks for information on pensions, savings investments etc. The amount of wrong information that some posters keep repeating is incredible.

You really do need to get a Gov Gateway account. And the 35 years isn't always correct, I only need 31 due to contributions before 2016. I can't pretend to understand the calculation but it's there on my gateway account... for reference I'm 47 and only need another 2 years contributions before retirement age to get the full amount. Sadly I still have to pay the full NI!

It will be based on him stopping now. £220 ish is full amount and it sounds as if he is a couple of years short of full history (35 years).

35 years has absolutely no relevance in this case as the OPs husband had a NI record prior to 2016. You also can't say that the amount he is quoted is what he has up to now. The OP has only told us what he was forecasted to get a year ago. That forecast could be dependent on him paying many more years of NI or credits being made due to benefits.