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

grey_gym_sock

Dhiammara wrote: »

Separate post re: my husband's state pension. He is 57 and took early retirement some years ago so 2004-5 year was his last full year of NI contributions. We always anticipated making voluntary contributions to complete his record but again, the information on the site isn't clear as to what contributions need to be made to ensure he receives the full state pension. Any advice would be appreciated.

Based on 26 years of contributions his record

Amount based on your latest National Insurance record (5 April 2015)
£110.55 a week which is £480.70 a month, £5768.34 a year
Amount you may get to if you contribute
£151.88 a week which is £660.41 a month, £7,924.88 a year

He has a COPE showing on a separate page, it was just over £50 but I forget the exact figure.

Am I right in assuming that we need to pay for 4 years voluntary contributions prior to the end of the 2015-16 tax year taking him to 30 years pre-nSP contributions, and then make contributions for a further 5 years post nSP to ensure his full nSP or am I totally misunderstanding? Also will COPE mean he can't reach full nSP in any case? The COPE page was adding the £151.88 to the COPE amount to show an amount of just over £202 in total.

i've changed £155.88 to £151.88 (in bold), where i think that's what you meant (based on your other figures) ...

similarly to you, your husband seems to have more on the OLD calculation than the NEW.

OLD
basic 26/30 x £119.30 = £103.39
plus
additional (inferred to be) £7.16
makes £110.55

NEW
26/35 * £155.65 = £115.63
minus
COPE £50-ish
makes about £65

so OLD is higher.

if he has no NI credits for the last few years, then paying voluntary contributions for up to 4 of the years before 5 april 2016 can increase that amount. however, each of those extras years only adds about £119.30 / 30 = £3.98; but each year after 5 april 2016 which you pay for adds about £155.65 / 35 = £4.45. so the latter years are a bit more valuable. however, i think he can only buy about 8 or 9 of the latter years (the last tax year you can buy is the 1 before the tax year in which you reach state pension age), so may need to buy some of the earlier years, too.

fifeken

bigadaj wrote: »

You're probably correct for the first part of your post, but why would there be a cope figure quoted if they were never contracted out?

It sounds as though they were contracted out for some time and in for other periods, I've seen figures quoted of well over £200 a week for people who were never contracted out and have a large amount of Serps and s2p.

I'm pretty sure this is correct and I have a mix of contracted out periods and regular, full contributions, including those for the extra pension. It seems like these make my calculations under the old system slightly higher then those under the new.

Is there any way to get a more detailed breakdown of payments and in/out periods, and any way to catch back the contracted out payments to increase the total pension?

bigfreddiel

Dhiammara wrote: »

£155.88 a week which is £660.41 a month, £7,924.88 a year

This isn't correct!

£155.88 x 52 = £8,105.76 a year
£155.88 x 4 = £623.52 every four weeks
or
£8,105.76.76/12 = £675.48 per month

Is how I calculate it or is this wrong?.

Cheers fj

p00hsticks

fifeken wrote: »

Is there any way to get a more detailed breakdown of payments and in/out periods, and any way to catch back the contracted out payments to increase the total pension?

you can get a detailed NI record here
https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

If by 'catch back the contracted out payments' you mean paying extra to change a contracted out year to a contracted in one, then that's not possible.

And if. as you suggest in post #146, your current pension statement already gives you a starting pension amount over £155.65, then you are not able to increase your pension amount further anyhow.

p00hsticks

bigfreddiel wrote: »

This isn't correct!

£155.88 x 52 = £8,105.76 a year
£155.88 x 4 = £623.52 every four weeks
or
£8,105.76.76/12 = £675.48 per month

Is how I calculate it or is this wrong?.

Cheers fj

As 'grey gym sock' has already picked up in their post, it looks as if the poster made a typo and should have put £151.88 not £155.88

fifeken

p00hsticks wrote: »

you can get a detailed NI record here
https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

Thanks, does that give more NI detail than that supplied when you ask for a pension prediction? When I did the pension predictor it only said "Full year" with no indication of being contracted out or not.

p00hsticks wrote: »

If by 'catch back the contracted out payments' you mean paying extra to change a contracted out year to a contracted in one, then that's not possible.

That's a shame.

p00hsticks wrote: »

And if. as you suggest in post #146, your current pension statement already gives you a starting pension amount over £155.65, then you are not able to increase your pension amount further anyhow.

Post #496 I think, but thanks again anyway. I'm convinced that's what I'll be getting, just trying to understand all the calculations behind it, especially for the periods where I was and wasn't contracted out over the years.

xylophone

Slightly confused with the information being presented on the government website. In my case, age 48, the 2015-16 year is currently still not showing, but my breakdown is:

See https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210299/single-tier-valuation-contracting-out.pdf (although your deduction in respect of contracting out is very small- you appear to have been contracted in for most of your working life.).

Old calculation up to 2015-16 is calculated as 28/30 x £119.30 + (SERPS+S2P) - RDA calculated as

1. Contracted-out Deduction from 1978-97;
2. A new notional deduction in respect of being contracted out between 1997
and 2002 - this value will be the amount of SERPS the person would have
had if they had been contracted in;
3. The deduction made from gross S2P in respect of being contracted out from
2002 to 2016.

The old calculation gives you £148.38

The new calculation gives £128.60.

The above will be amended when 2015-16 year is accounted for.

The old calculation will still give you a higher starting amount than the new.

You can only build up to the full amount of new state pension but of course will still have to pay NI while you are employed and earning as here

https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/overview

A maximum of two years will give you full NSP - you cannot build beyond that amount.

agent69

Just tried the gov beta site, and it says that my pension at 66 will be £176.92 / wk.


Can this be correct (thought it was limited to about £155)

bigfreddiel

agent69 wrote: »

Just tried the gov beta site, and it says that my pension at 66 will be £176.92 / wk.


Can this be correct (thought it was limited to about £155)

Yes it could be correct because you have some additional pension from SERPS and/or S2P when you were contracted in many years ago
.

Nice one, fj

bigfreddiel

p00hsticks wrote: »

As 'grey gym sock' has already picked up in their post, it looks as if the poster made a typo and should have put £151.88 not £155.88

Hmmmm....
Even using £151.88 doesn't make sense.

£151.88 x 52 = £7,897.76 per year
£7,897.76/12 = £658.14 per month

Originally Posted by Dhiammara View Post
£155.88 a week which is £660.41 a month, £7,924.88 a year

What is wrong with my maths, or aren't there 52 weeks in a year for the purposes of this calculation?

Cheers fj