What is the maximum state pension?

ognum

I am interested to know what the maximum state pension that can be achieved is.

Any help?

jamesd

One maximum is £276.10 a week if deferral is ignored, and perhaps more with some GRP entitlement. That is composed of £113.10 Basic State Pension plus £163 Additional State Pension, possibly including some SERPS entitlement from a spouse. Deferral adds 10.4% a year and there is no limit on how many years can be deferred so a person could defer for say 10 years and increase £250 to £510 a week.

I'm not certain that these are the actual maximum possible levels, just some that I could find relatively quickly. Around £250 seems to be the highest sort of level in practice, if not the theoretical maximum.

If you want to try calculating maximum possible levels, deferring at 10.4% a year was introduced in 2006. Before that it was at 7.42% a year. I don't know when deferral first became available. Back in 2003 the Pension Policy Institute Note 4 gave the chance of surviving long enough to break even after five year deferral as 60% for men and 82% for women. Both will have increased since then but this sort of thing is part of why I suggest up to 3 and 5 years respectively.

Late in 2015 there will be the option to buy up to an additional £25 a week of state pension for those reaching state pension age before the flat rate comes in.

dunstonh

I am interested to know what the maximum state pension that can be achieved is.

Its not as easy as that as it would depend on age and qualification. You have the basic state pension but some people will have graduated pension, SERPS and S2P. The additional pensions historically got played around with. So, some have pensions that others cannot hope to achieve (under the current system).