ESA, NI & medical pension

LindsayO

okay, I've been doing a bit of hunting around and the Job Centre Plus publishes a booklet on NI here
http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/stellent/groups/jcp/documents/websitecontent/dev_015691.pdf
There is something called National INsurance Credits that you can get if you can't work even if you don't qualify for ESA, but as a woman I can't get these after I reach 60, whereas a man gets them automatically from 60 to 64 (If I'm reading it right). So if my health keeps going downhill, I could medically retire at say 52, get NI Credits till I'm 60, have 36 years of NI contributions, so maybe I need to start thinking about paying for 4 extra years now?

leemack

you would get esa credits until whenever the state retirement age is for you. if this is 65 then the credits continue until you're 65.

LindsayO

leemack wrote: »

you would get esa credits until whenever the state retirement age is for you. if this is 65 then the credits continue until you're 65.

thanks that makes sense

healy

de1amo wrote: »

the esa is set to exclude people with pensions--the old style İncapacity benefit allowed you to have savings and a pension but Mr blair/brown closed that avenue--i dont know how esa view income and covering Nİ credits--on the old İB you used to be able to work part time--up to 12 hours or 92 pounds and stil get all the ni credits as well as the benefit--i dont know anything about esa--its worth investigating

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i was talking about buying extra pension years before you start claiming it--i reckoned at the time i retired that loaning the money to buy the extra years would have more than be paid for by having an increased pension for life --your union rep might be an avenue of advice!

There has been no change with ESA and IB and it does not exclude people with pensions unless the pensions are high, leemack has mentioned the rules above.

I think you are talking about permitted work on IB. This has continued with ESA where you can work for less than 16 hours per week and still receive ESA.

Further details here:http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/FinancialSupport/esa/DG_171909

de1amo

LindsayO wrote: »

okay, I've been doing a bit of hunting around and the Job Centre Plus publishes a booklet on NI here
http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/stellent/groups/jcp/documents/websitecontent/dev_015691.pdf
There is something called National INsurance Credits that you can get if you can't work even if you don't qualify for ESA, but as a woman I can't get these after I reach 60, whereas a man gets them automatically from 60 to 64 (If I'm reading it right). So if my health keeps going downhill, I could medically retire at say 52, get NI Credits till I'm 60, have 36 years of NI contributions, so maybe I need to start thinking about paying for 4 extra years now?

İf you get 36 years of ni payments in---via the esa top up you dont need any more--the new limit to get the normal pension is only 30 years !

de1amo

confused i am--where did the 36years come from--your 52 and have 16 years Nİ now!!!???

de1amo

Whether you receive any contributary esa depends on the level of your pension. if your pension is less than £85 a week you keep full contributary esa (as long as you qualify on capability for work grounds) if your pension is more than £85 a week then half of the amount over £85 is deducted from your ESA each week.[/QUOTE]
i am lost by this equastion--my pension is 146 a week and say esa is 100 pounds--whats the answer lol

healy

LindsayO wrote: »

I don't think that is what I'm talking about. As I understand it deferring the state pension means not taking the state pension at normal retirement age, in my case 65, but waiting and taking it later (don't know why you would do this)

What I am talking about is retiring early sometime before I reach 65 (I'm 50 now) due to ill health. Say I had to retire at 52 due to ill health. At this point I might qualify for ESA (if I passed the physical and was on the lower tier of my medical pension). IN this case I would be drawing my works pension and receiving ESA. At that point (when I'm 52) I would only have 18 years NI, so I would not qualify for a full state pension when I reached 65, unless the additional NI contributions were paid either by me or through being on ESA. I'm not sure if either of these is possible

If you are 50 and only have 16 qualifying years you will not have enough time before you retire to make your qualifying years up to 30 and receive a full state retirement pension unless you are deficient in the last 6 years which you could make up by voluntary payments.

LindsayO

Sorry for the confusion everyone.
I'm 50 now and have 16 years NI contributions, so if I kept working for 15 more years till 65 and retired as normal I'd have 31 years of NI contributions

If I have to retire early due to ill health at say 52 I'd have 18 years NI contributions. I made two errors in what I said next, I thought that I'd only be eligible for 8 years of NI credits or until I was 60 (which was wrong I'd be eligible up to 65 or 13 years). I also added 18 and 8 together to get 36 (I should have said 26). If I had added correctly and if my eligibility for NI credits did stop at 60 then I would have had 4 missing years and it all would have made sense.


Sorry once again.

LindsayO

de1amo wrote: »

Whether you receive any contributary esa depends on the level of your pension. if your pension is less than £85 a week you keep full contributary esa (as long as you qualify on capability for work grounds) if your pension is more than £85 a week then half of the amount over £85 is deducted from your ESA each week.

i am lost by this equastion--my pension is 146 a week and say esa is 100 pounds--whats the answer lol[/QUOTE]

your pension is 146 pounds a week, take away 85 pounds leaves 61, divide by 2 gives £30.50, subtract that from 100, and you have £69.50

So if you are under 65 and retired on medical grounds then you should look into applying for ESA. Only don't trust my arithmetic, get someone lese to check it for you. I can't add 18 and 8