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

33Lurcher

Once you get to sp age in July you won't have to pay any more NI contributions even if you carry on working , they will supply you with an age exemption certificate .

bigfreddiel

33Lurcher wrote: »

Once you get to sp age in July you won't have to pay any more NI contributions even if you carry on working , they will supply you with an age exemption certificate .

I know that! Thanks anyway.

fj

saver861

saver861 wrote: »

Got onto this tonight via the personal tax account. Tad confused on something.

All paper pension forecasts tell me I got the magic 30 years in up to April 2015. This online version also tells me I got 30 years. All good so far.

However, my record is from 1982-83 ( prior I was outside the UK.) It also tells me I have 5 years that are not full i.e. I did not contribute enough. That is correct, as I was at uni.

So, I'm pretty puzzled how it is coming up with these figures. So, in total there is 33 years from 1982-83 to 2014-15. Yet is has me down for 30 full years contributions and 5 when I did not contribute enough.

Any clues?

Answering my own question here but might be of use to anyone with similar confusion. It probably has been brought up elsewhere on this or other threads.

In any event, it seems that two years NI's are applied automatically when you first apply for a NI record. These two years are educational years from 16 to 18 apparently.

It is applied regardless of whether you were in the country or not.

So, it seems you only have to effectively have 28 working NI's as there will be two automatically applied. (Not sure if these two years are still applied to new applications.)

As it happens I have only 28 full years NI's but these two educational years make it up to 30 - which is pre April 2016, so qualifies for full basic state pension. Nice one ....

p00hsticks

saver861 wrote: »

In any event, it seems that two years NI's are applied automatically when you first apply for a NI record. These two years are educational years from 16 to 18 apparently.

I thought it was 3 years - the ones with your 16th, 17th and 18th birthdays.
The credits were stopped in 2010 when the amount of years required for a full state pension was reduced.

saver861

p00hsticks wrote: »

I thought it was 3 years - the ones with your 16th, 17th and 18th birthdays.
The credits were stopped in 2010 when the amount of years required for a full state pension was reduced.

Two years the nice lady at DWP told me. I'm guessing it would be 16th and 17th birthdays. 18th means you fend for yourself thereafter.

noh

Three years "Starting Credits" were awarded.
Awarded in the tax year the person became 16 and the following two tax years.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220274/eia-ni-credits-changes.pdf

fifeken

I ran the beta site predicting what I'd get and it made me think of a couple of questions. One is answered just above with the two/three years "free" while I was at school but not sure about the other.


It says I have all my years as fully paid. I know I was contracted out for some of the time, so expected some years to be short. I'm obviously misunderstanding something in the process but can someone explain to me what it is?


My calculation said I'd 36 full years of contributions (up to 2015) with 15 potentially still to go, and it predicted a pension of just over £155 per week.

saver861

noh wrote: »

Three years "Starting Credits" were awarded.
Awarded in the tax year the person became 16 and the following two tax years.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220274/eia-ni-credits-changes.pdf

Not sure why there is a difference. I have definitely only got two years. I would not have expected to get any but it is certainly two not three.

fifeken wrote: »

It says I have all my years as fully paid. I know I was contracted out for some of the time, so expected some years to be short. I'm obviously misunderstanding something in the process but can someone explain to me what it is?

That would be right. Contracted out does not mean you don't make full years - it just means you have a different pension amount on the old and new rules. You still pay NI and if you paid for the full year or over the threshold then you have a qualifying year.

fifeken wrote: »

My calculation said I'd 36 full years of contributions (up to 2015) with 15 potentially still to go, and it predicted a pension of just over £155 per week.

Yes - you will have 35 years to get the max new pension of £155.

fifeken

saver861 wrote: »

That would be right. Contracted out does not mean you don't make full years - it just means you have a different pension amount on the old and new rules. You still pay NI and if you paid for the full year or over the threshold then you have a qualifying year.

Thanks for that.

Just to help me understand more, does that mean being contracted out would only make a difference if I was on the old system, and with me being on the new one it doesn't affect things?

bigadaj

fifeken wrote: »

Thanks for that.

Just to help me understand more, does that mean being contracted out would only make a difference if I was on the old system, and with me being on the new one it doesn't affect things?

Sort of.

A calculation is done under the old and new systems and you would get the better of the two.

Under the old system if you were contracted out then you would only get the basic state pension, having saved NI and getting a private pension. Under the new system you have a base amount and as no one is now contracted out going forward can accrue additional pension up to the maximum flat rate amount.