State pension and NI contributions

rainbow143

My husband and I are thinking of retiring early - he will be 61 and I will be 57.
Can anyone tell me what effect this will have on our State pension when we both reach 65?
My husband has paid high NI contributions over the years and had a letter a few years ago to say he should have £150 a week when he retires. I have worked for over 30 years and alway paid NI contributions.
Any advice would be welcome - many thanks.

RichandJ

If you both have 30 years NI contributions you will both get a full Basic State Pension at your respective State Pension Ages. It sounds like your husband also has some additional pension arising from being contracted in to SERPS/S2P.

molerat

Firstly get a state pension forecast https://secure.thepensionservice.gov.uk/statepensionforecast/

This will tell you how much your pensions are worth at today's rates and how many years contributions you have got in the pot. By retiring with 30 years or more contributions all you are missing out on is any future SERPS/S2P you would earn when working, full NI is an expensive way to pay for what little extra you will get.

Loughton_Monkey

Good that you can retire early. I retired at 56. I would make sure you have the calculations correct and that you will have enough cash flow to maintain the level of spending you require (plus inflation).

rainbow143

molerat wrote: »

Firstly get a state pension forecast https://secure.thepensionservice.gov.uk/statepensionforecast/

This will tell you how much your pensions are worth at today's rates and how many years contributions you have got in the pot. By retiring with 30 years or more contributions all you are missing out on is any future SERPS/S2P you would earn when working, full NI is an expensive way to pay for what little extra you will get.

Thanks for that....but if he has already accrued extra state pension by paying in high NI contributions, will that be taken away if he stops paying early, i.e. at age 61? Or will his state pension be frozen at the level he earned when he retired.

rainbow143

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Good that you can retire early. I retired at 56. I would make sure you have the calculations correct and that you will have enough cash flow to maintain the level of spending you require (plus inflation).

This is our main concern!!
How on earth do you calculate what money you will need when you're not working? Apart from going through a couple of years statements and working through our directs debits etc, is there anything else we should be doing? Going from feeling really excited to terrified at the thought!!

anamenottaken

rainbow143 wrote: »

Thanks for that....but if he has already accrued extra state pension by paying in high NI contributions, will that be taken away if he stops paying early, i.e. at age 61? Or will his state pension be frozen at the level he earned when he retired.

It will not be frozen in terms of an actual sum of money. When entitled to collect his pension, it will be at the level that it would have been if he had only just retired and had been paying standard NI contributions up to that point.