DWP / Pension Service Not Up To Speed

molerat

From a pension statement downloaded today

The full basic State Pension in 2015/2016 is £113.10 a week.

The additional pension uprate seems about right though. Is there anything a government department can actually get right

molerat

Site updated today. Women over 60 can now get a statement (under old rules).

agarnett

I didn't know these might be available online. Are the online ones any different to the ones that come via the post?

I can't get one online at the moment because I have the wrong sort of online account apparently. Mine is an old Self Assessment login which seems to have converted itself into a business type login, obviously (NOT!).

Anyway, I requested my future pension statement by telephone over a month ago.

I called today to see how they were getting on. A kind gentleman could see my letter which clearly had been created before 6 April because it included old basic state pension £113.10 instead of the current figure now £115.95.

It hadn't been sent out yet, he said. But he could see it. And it was already obsolete.

Oh, and when I said yes yes I think I knew this much already, but what about my future pension under the new rules, the kind gentleman from Future Pensions was sorry but was unable to tell me about my future pension entitlement under the new rules post 2016. He could then only tell me I had more than 35 years qualifying which was enough he said, and that if I wanted more I could buy up to six at around £800 for each, but I needed to call another number for that. I called it and a recorded message told me that they couldn't take payments over the phone - they prefer the real McCoy I guess. Sounds very much like Greece - I understand the same applies there - you can pay a company some money and they put a stamp on something which the government will then recognise as entitlement to more pension money if you haven't actually earned it, except in Greece it is of course an unofficial practice! Here we do it officially and call it normal :rotfl:

No-one in Future Pensions could of course tell me how paying for extra years would help me. Apparently they used to help people with forecasting their actual individual pensions based on a set of assumptions, but they don't do that now because the assumptions were too often wrong.

Oh well, back to the future I guess :mad:

Or maybe I just have to hang around MSE long enough and I can find my own answers :money:

Anyone got any idea how much extra state pension one retrospective extra year would buy? Is it the same as the ~5% pa I've read elsewhere in this forum can be earned between now and retirement? Might be worth it if it is.

jamesd

One retrospective year could buy anything from nothing to 1/30th of the basic state pension. Nothing is how much it would buy a person who has 30 or more years of contributions already. Nothing is its true value to a person who has enough future years of work to get to the full flat rate state pension anyway, though in the short term it would show an increase, it'd just mean this person hits the flat rate cap sooner.

Buying after the flat rate state pension comes in should buy 1/35th of the flat rate amount and that might be worth considering for someone just about to hit state pension age. Someone younger than that could use self-employment contributions and a possibly money making hobby to get the years more cheaply.

dicky_dunock

When i looked at mine online today it had the new correct weekly basic amount of 115.95 but my additional has'nt changed from 2014/15 tax year and my qualifying years(41) has'nt changed.

p00hsticks

agarnett wrote: »

He could then only tell me I had more than 35 years qualifying which was enough he said

agarnett wrote: »

Anyone got any idea how much extra state pension one retrospective extra year would buy?

As you've already got 35 years conts, there's no point buying more at present.

If you're reaching state pension age after April 2016, then when you get your pension forecast, if it's less than around £155 there may be some benefit in buying extra years after april 2016 if you're not working at that point.

agarnett

I knew the answer would be on MSE long before anyone on the telephone at HMRC would get their head around it !

Thank you!