checking your state pension

DAVELEEDS

I am sure that this question must have been asked many times, but is there a link to try and check whether the State Pension that the HMRC allocates to you is correct?

I have just received mine and it is substantially different from my wife's. This may be correct although we have both worked fully for the public sector from university to retirement age.

The main differences lie in the amounts given for:
a) "Additional State Pension to 5/4/1997"

and
b) "Graduated Retirement Benefit base on contributions paid between 1961 and 1975"

How is anyone meant to check these figures?

I have written to HMRC but not received a sensible response.

Thanks

p00hsticks

DAVELEEDS wrote: »

I have written to HMRC but not received a sensible response.

Unless you are referring to tax codings rather than actual state pension amounts, shouldn't you be querying it with The Pension Service (or DWP) rather than HMRC ?

Tescodealqueen

The Pension Service should be able to advise you. Additional pension depends on if you were contracted out or not. The leaflet NP46 may help you understand it, when it becomes available again (or not as State Pensions have had numerous changes over the years.)
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/np46-guide-to-state-pensions.pdf

xylophone

http://www.opalliance.org.uk/increases.htm - for RPI read CPI. For GMP read COD
http://www.monetos.co.uk/pensions/st...ns/graduated/N
Contracted Out Deduction (COD)

The Additional Pension accrued between 6 April 1978 and 5 April 1997 is reduced
when someone has been a member of a contracted out scheme or personal pension
used in place of SERPS. Contracted out salary related schemes provide a
Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) worth about the same as the Additional
Pension payable under the state scheme. In the state scheme this is now termed the
Contracted Out Deduction. The Additional Pension is reduced by the contracted out
deduction to prevent double provision. With contracted out money purchase
schemes, and personal pensions, there is no guaranteed minimum but the Additional
Pension is reduced in a similar way. A widow or widower is entitled to half of the
GMP of their spouse. This will result in an appropriate contracted out deduction being
made.

DAVELEEDS

Thanks for the help, yes I did contact the Pensions rather than HMRC.

WhiteHorse

Some while ago, someone at the Pensions office admitted to me that the system was in utter chaos, and that they actually had very little idea who had paid what.

Newly retired people were being told that they had either no or only a reduced entitlement, when they had in fact paid more than enough.

Who keeps wages slips for 40 years? What happens when the firm that issued them goes out of business and disappears?

The advice given to me was to obtain a Pension Forecast at regular intervals (ideally every year), and then keep them. Forever.

It's not just that the system is in itself hopeless, it's that an increasingly desperate government could move the goalposts or make your records disappear at any time.

anmarj

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/DG_10011010

you can contact the contributions agency and ask them for a copy of your file and that should hold the information regarding contributions paid, The Pension Service would only know what they have been told by National Insurance Office

teajug

WhiteHorse wrote: »

Some while ago, someone at the Pensions office admitted to me that the system was in utter chaos, and that they actually had very little idea who had paid what.

Newly retired people were being told that they had either no or only a reduced entitlement, when they had in fact paid more than enough.

Who keeps wages slips for 40 years? What happens when the firm that issued them goes out of business and disappears?

The advice given to me was to obtain a Pension Forecast at regular intervals (ideally every year), and then keep them. Forever.

It's not just that the system is in itself hopeless, it's that an increasingly desperate government could move the goalposts or make your records disappear at any time.

I was told the same about them not knowing what was happening within pension services, does not fill you with confidence with the government organisations.