Pension Boosting article discussion

Dibblersan_3

OK, so I am past retirement age and I have not claimed my State Pension. I understood that there is no formal mechanism for deferring receipt of the State Pension but I did try to access my "Pension Pot Data" to see how much deferred pension I had accrued. It seems that either I am useless at searching for this data or it is not available.


Anyone have any idea on this subject? :huh:

jamesd

Calculate how many 5 week periods it has been from when you reached your state pension age to today. Each of those periods gets you 1% extra.

You can use the date calculator I linked to to get the number of weeks then divide by 5 to get the answer as a percentage. Once you know the percentage you can multiply your state pension entitlement by that to get the amount extra.

arniebarney

My wife and I have a dilemma and I wonder if anyone has any views/help? My wife is stay at home mum to our 4 children. She is a keen hobby cake baker and thinking it could be something she could do as a small business. When I say small I mean she might sell a cake or a few cupcakes each month, perhaps make £10 to £20 in one month and then possibly nothing for the next.

At the moment she gets her national insurance credit and therefore I assume pension years are being earned, but if she registers as a business she could claim exemption from paying ni, but is it the case she could not receive ni credit so in effect to keep her years contributions going she will have to pay the ni each week?

Problem is.....if this is the case she will be paying most of what she is earning back in ni contributions, so in that case it seems hardly worth it!

Really appreciate your thoughts?

sniffypup

A few comments aimed at helping improve the pensions page:

1. I suggest it's best to avoid saying that state pensions are "funded by NI contributions". Better to say that your state pensions depends on the number of years you've paid NI.

2. After two calls to the pension service I've been given two different rates for the basic pension(!), so I suggest adding a link to the maximum state pension rates for successive tax years (not easy to find on the government website).

3. Perhaps some clarification of the deferred pension calculation could be added (even a worked example)? Specifically, if deferring for more than one year, does the extra pension amount always get based on my pension rate in "year 1", or would each 1% increase in the second year of deferral be based on my (increased) basic pension for that year?

regards.

kidmugsy

Dibblersan wrote: »

OK, so I am past retirement age and I have not claimed my State Pension. I understood that there is no formal mechanism for deferring receipt of the State Pension but I did try to access my "Pension Pot Data" to see how much deferred pension I had accrued. It seems that either I am useless at searching for this data or it is not available.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/372517/dwp024-102014.pdf

jamesd

sniffypup wrote: »

1. I suggest it's best to avoid saying that state pensions are "funded by NI contributions". Better to say that your state pensions depends on the number of years you've paid NI.

Some people are reluctant to claim because they don't like the idea of relying on state handouts. For such people it's important to tell them that they are getting money that they have paid for with their NI contributions, so it's not a handout but part of the national insurance system that they have paid for.

It's also useful for public policy discussion to know that the state pensions are paid out of NI rather than general taxation, unlike say pension credit which is paid out of the benefits budget and hence general taxation.

roubiliac

Magcar wrote: »

I have paid National Insurance contributions for approximately nine years, five of those with the married women's stamp. I received Child Benefit for approximately twenty-five years. I was led to believe I should pay six years shortfall to make up my pension but then read that married women needn't do this. What should I do please?

you can only ever receive 16 years NI credit when taking time out to raise children, regardless of how long you were not working. Child benefit receipt has nothing to do with pensions.

roubiliac

I am due to retire in December 2016.
I am an ex public employee with a final salary pension that opted out of SERPS.
Because of this I will not be receiving the new flat rate.
Despite having put a request in writing on two occasions, and the Govt's assurances that requests will be dealt with in 10 days of receipt I still have no idea what state pension I will receive.
Two years to go and I cannot make definite plans for my retirement.
Utterly ridiculous.

greenglide

Well you are guaranteed what you would have got under the old system (slightly over £113 per week seems likely) and you may get more than that.

So do your planning as if nSP hadnt happened which, presumably, is what you did before nSP was thought of.

twizzel

roubiliac wrote: »

......
Despite having put a request in writing on two occasions, and the Govt's assurances that requests will be dealt with in 10 days of receipt ....

I put in a request on 17th October and I am still waiting too.