New State Pension starting amount and full record of qualifying years- trial service

greenglide

I was going to put child benefit in my name for the next couple of years to increase my years to 35, but if I interpret the above correctly this would have no impact- is that correct?

Providing that the site is right (I work in IT and have a healthy scepticism for these things) and we are interpreting was it says correctly then you are already above the £155.65 (the excess is paid as the protected payment) and additional contributions cannot increase this, only earnings during the current tax year can do this by increasing S2P entitlement.

SnowMan

BananaRepublic wrote: »

The site is very good.

I was surprised to get £157pw based on 29 years of contributions. This is almost the full amount based on 35 years using the new scheme. I thought I'd have to work six more years. I guess the new pension is similar, albeit a flat rate, but accrued over more contributions to make it affordable to the country.

That doesn't look obviously wrong.

I think the amounts are based on 2015/2016 rates of state pension/single tier pension so I will stick with these below.

Because the amount is above £151.95pw it tells you that the existing state scheme basis is higher than the new state scheme calculation and it is the higher of the two that forms your starting amount at April 2016.

You can increase this amount if you get an extra pre April 2016 qualifying year to get you up to 30, in particular if 2015/2016 counts as a qualifying year.

This would increase your starting amount from £157pw to about £161pw

29/30 x 115.95 (basic state pension) + £44.92 additional state pension = £157pw

and

(30/30 x 115.95) + 44.92 = £160.87pw

You might get a small amount of additional pension for 2015/2016 also on top of this.

You won't be able to add to this amount after 6th April 2016. So it doesn't matter whether you work and get qualifying years (post 2016) or get credits etc or whether you don't.

However the amount of £157pw (or £161pw or whatever) will keep it's value in real terms.

In fact the first £151.95pw will be increased in line with the triple lock (currently) i.e the higher of prices, earnings and 2.5% each year. And the balance will increase in line with CPI inflation up to SPA and after.

SnowMan

I used the help facility to ask if they could tell me what the old and new calculation figure was, as the system only shows the higher of the two.

They rang me up on the next working day and are now going to produce a paper statement based on the new rules (even though I am under age 55), which they will be able to intercept before it is sent out, but will enable them to contact me to tell me the old and new calculation figures.

While I think the calculation on both bases need to be shown automatically on the online system, I was impressed with how quickly they got back to me and they were genuinely listening to what I said, rather than trying to fob me off with "you don't need to know the calculation on both bases'.

I think it all looks very encouraging as a way for people to understand their new state pensions.

greenglide

I think it all looks very encouraging as a way for people to understand their new state pensions.

One thing is guaranteed - it won't last. They will randomly remove bits of information that people query because they don't want to try to explain it. We will end up with the same level of rubbish the the future pensions centre send out now with only one figure because giving old and new rules figures confuses people.

I had assumed that this site was an HMRC initiative as they have the data while DWP actually run the future pension centre and saw this as a one - off to communicate, badly, the Starting Amount details.

sham63

Very annoyed that I couldn't be verified - after inputting details from my driving licence, passport, credit card, debit card, current account as well as other personal info.


That's a lot of personal info to 'give away' for nothing.

gadgetmind

SnowMan wrote: »

While I think the calculation on both bases need to be shown automatically on the online system

Agreed 100%. That we have to jump through hoops to obtain this information is deeply wrong.

greenglide

That's a lot of personal info to 'give away' for nothing.

At least in theory, if you do get verified, you should be able to use the .gov.uk verification to use other government online systems with, I believe, no requirement to get verified again provided you can remember the user name and password.

The problem with the Government Gateway was always that if you wanted to use a new service (signed up for Self Assessment but wanted a pension forecast) you had to enroll for that service which tended to involve sending you a new activation code - different government agencies would not accept that gateway credentials for one service were trusted for another.

Self Assessment takes either the .gov.uk verification or the GG credentials. The DWP State Pension Online service (SPOL) only uses the government gateway so I had to get an activation code for that last week, despite already having GG services for Self Assessment, Pensions Forecase, Student Loans etc and I had gone through the new verification for the new pension starting amount as well.

Madness!

sham63

Like most people, I'm nervous of giving too much personal info online, so I'm sitting at my PC typing in my passport details, bank details, credit card, etc, thinking 'well, it will be worth it'....


and then COMPUTER SAYS NO!

and the best they can say is 'try again next week'...I don't think so.

greenglide

Since one of the service providers is the Post Office and Post Office still has branches maybe what is needed if for people to present their proof of identify, residence ets at a Post Office and the Post Office then updates them as "verified" or is that too simple an idea?

BananaRepublic

You need so many proofs of id to protect your personal data. You'd really be in trouble if that got out.

greenglide wrote: »

Since one of the service providers is the Post Office and Post Office still has branches maybe what is needed if for people to present their proof of identify, residence ets at a Post Office and the Post Office then updates them as "verified" or is that too simple an idea?

It is potentially far more expensive. You'd have to train staff, and maybe hire more staff. The reason why so much is going online is to reduce costs, which reduces government spending. I don't know if this is a Tory, Tory-Liberal, Labour or civil service initiative, but the onlining of gov services is excellent.