Does everyone get a state pension?

[Dappy777]

If someone was

• Never registered as unfit to work (but never worked)
• Never a registered carer
• Never claimed any benefits
• Never paid any National Insurance

Do they still qualify for a state pension? Or do they get nothing at all?

So if someone has, say, £500,000 in the bank but has paid NI all their life, they get a full state pension? But if someone has £40,000 in the bank but has paid no NI they get no state pension until that £40,000 has gone? Then they get pension credits – is that right?

Are you confused? Or indignant about it?

Someone who has paid NI contributions all their life is entitled to a state pension. Someone who has paid no NI contributions is not. HTH.

No, there are still people yet to retire who will get more than the new SP:

See this comment:
If you’re getting more than £230.25 a week
If you paid into the Additional State Pension 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.

From this page:
www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get

It would have been outrageous if those who contributed to this scheme didn't receive the extra they planned for. This is one of the reasons we have a personalised calculation for anyone who started paying in prior to 2016.

@Chewbecca
OK, I haven't read it all and I will accept you know more than me on this.

Back to the point of the thread, for most people who are yet to retire, the state pension will be a measly £3 odd more than pension credit, which does seem like a failure of government policy.

Why has this 40-something never worked and been paid for by a parent? What a tragic waste of a life.

I agree with this!

It is an kick in the teeth that if you worked cash in hand, out of the country or just chose not to work, you will get topped up by PC (& all the benefits that come with it) to equal / more than someone who worked and contributed all their working lives.

The state pension is supposed to be a basic amount to live on. It makes perfect sense for the means-tested pension credit to be a similar amount. Poor people don't have fewer needs than better off people. If people wanted more than a basic amount to live on they were supposed to save into a personal pension. That's why the basic state pension isn't means tested, so your personal pension is on top.

But the point is govt policy needs to motivate people to work, pay tax and NI. To get the same (in fact, more with additional benefits associated with PC) with no work / contribution isn't smart.

They’d get Pension Credit - it’s non contributory.

For some people, all the motivation in the world can't change a job paying less than not working if you have to factor in transport and childcare costs. The whole idea of "tax credits" was Gordon Browns wheeze to pretend they don't exist. But of course rapacious companies immediately realised it meant they could pay (even) less than they were.

And everyone getting a credit is on benefits, regardless of how they may identify.

Then what is the point of the NI system?

(apart from the fact that the state pension doesn't look at your savings)

Back when the welfare state was set up after WWII, the state pension was supposed to be sufficient on its own.

You could equally say what's the point of working? The point is, those who can, do, and those who can't aren't left to starve in the gutter.

The money raised from NI pays for a multitude of things, not just benefits.

I don't understand your comment about "way back when". The basic state pension is still deemed to be sufficient for your basic needs. If you're a property owner with no disabilities and no private pension, who has worked enough to pay or been credited with enough NI contributions, the basic state pension may be all you're entitled to, because that's deemed adequate for survival.

I think the fact that it’s not means tested is a big incentive to work for the NI credits, rather than rely on Pension credit.

State Pension currently could fund a lot of many people’s day to day expenses. If you’re lucky enough to have savings on top, then life is more comfortable.

To be in a position, in older age, where your savings are depleted and you rely on pension credit sounds stressful to me. Whatever the reasons for being in that position.