Pension Boosting article discussion

matty50

I wanted to tell folk about my experience of claiming SP last year, after deferring for one year. I phoned the pension phone line on a number of occasions and was told I was 3 years short of my required 39 years. I couldnt understand this as I had always worked or claimed child benefit. Turned out it was the (useless) married womans stamp!! The people in the call centre told me I couldnt buy back these 3 years as it was too long ago, ie, before 1975.
By incredibly good luck I was unable to do my claim online so rang the pension service to claim. I got a young lady who told me I could claim the 3 years on my ex-husband NI. It would make no difference to his pension and he would never know.
Why was I not told this before???
This has made a difference of about £13 a week to my pension, over £600 a year - thank you Carolyn at the pension phoneline!! :j

hugheskevi

Turned out it was the (useless) married womans stamp!!

It wasn't useless, it reduced the amount of National Insurance that had to be paid.

For women intending to rely on their spouse's pension to get a Category BL pension it was a good choice.

The people in the call centre told me I couldnt buy back these 3 years as it was too long ago, ie, before 1975.

That sounds accurate.

I got a young lady who told me I could claim the 3 years on my ex-husband NI.
Why was I not told this before???

Did you tell the original pension call-centre people you spoke to that you were divorced?

Information about using a divorced spouse's record for State Pension purposes is readily available on-line, eg at the Pension Advisory Service website. Even so, you would hope the call centre operative might prompt you about using your former spouse's record if you had told them you were divorced.

However, in fairness to the operatives, inheritance of State Pension on divorce is a completely different area to purchase of Added Years, which in turn is separate to deferral, so there is every chance they haven't been trained in that aspect - State Pensions is a hugely complex area and there are very, very few people in the country who could honestly claim to know all aspects of it in detail.

callil44

I should like all those of pensionable age who are thinking of deferring their pension to consider my story.

My divorced sister died last year aged 63. She had deferred her pension and kept on working. The estimated amount of pension deferred was in the region of £14 to £15K. When her estate was drawn up the state pension people were contacted by the lawyer only to be told that the value of her deferred pension was in the region of £1,300 ! Their explanation was that deferred pensions are only payable to spouses, and that was it.

I know that my sister (who was divorced and therefore a single person) was not informed of this at the time, and if she had been she would have chosen NOT to defer.

She worked all her adult life and paid all her taxes, NI's, etc. It seems so unfair that this money, which seemed like a savings plan at the time to her, should have ultimately been denied - even to cover funeral costs.

stagey_2

matty50 wrote: »

I wanted to tell folk about my experience of claiming SP last year, after deferring for one year. I phoned the pension phone line on a number of occasions and was told I was 3 years short of my required 39 years. I couldnt understand this as I had always worked or claimed child benefit. Turned out it was the (useless) married womans stamp!! The people in the call centre told me I couldnt buy back these 3 years as it was too long ago, ie, before 1975.
By incredibly good luck I was unable to do my claim online so rang the pension service to claim. I got a young lady who told me I could claim the 3 years on my ex-husband NI. It would make no difference to his pension and he would never know.
Why was I not told this before???
This has made a difference of about £13 a week to my pension, over £600 a year - thank you Carolyn at the pension phoneline!! :j

Matty - can you tell me did you re marry? I too paid the married womans 'stamp' ?

Frugalboy

People considering deferring their state pension, in order to get extra state pension, should note that the extra state pension they become entitled to does not necessarily increase each year by the same minimum amount as the basic state pension.

martinjh

Frugalboy wrote: »

People considering deferring their state pension, in order to get extra state pension, should note that the extra state pension they become entitled to does not necessarily increase each year by the same minimum amount as the basic state pension.

I deferred my State pension for just over a year, supporting myself with limited savings.
Be warned that when you finally claim your pension it will take a long time to come through as the DOHSS gets very confused about deferment.
In my case it took two departments four tries over a period of about three months, including two inspections of my Birth Certificate!!
Just make sure that you have sufficient money available to support yourself whilst they get their act together.

togo

I did not realise that claiming my deferred pension of approx £10,000 when I needed it because my self-employed husband became ill suddenly and died would result in loosing £2,650 tax after a year. I only had a cottage rental income of £325 pcm and a self employment income of £1,500. People Beware!

IKM

I am planning to defer my state pension to gain "Extra" state pension after a few years. I have searched all the relevant websites but am unable to find any definitive statement on how this extra pension is increased in payment each year. The best I can find on a government web site is "Once you claim your State Pension, any extra State Pension you have built up will usually increase each year." I take this to mean anything from 0% increase to the same increase as the basic state pension. The difference could be very significant. A previous poster has stated that the extra state pension does not necessarily increase each year by the same minimum amount as the basic state pension.
Can anyone enlighten me on this topic?
Maybe someone already getting extra state pension can advise on the current situation re annual increases?

Jaycee_Dove

I would be interested to hear that information also for the same reasons. Thanks.

jamesd

The increase is likely to be CPI instead of the higher of earnings, RPI or CPI. Earnings typically increase by about 1% more than CPI which in turn increases by more than CPI usually.

The difference isn't enough to make deferring a bad idea. It's still an excellent thing to do.