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

hayleydaley

I phoned up and a nice gentlemen was very helpful. Got my letter woth qualifying years and amount, didn't realise you get extra for pension being opted out. Too 2 weeks to arrive. Very pleased with the service I had

green_man

SnowMan wrote: »

There should be a link at the bottom saying 'get help with this page' so you could try that.

Alternatively send the future pensions centre an email or ring them up. The online form for email and phone number are in the following link.

https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre

The 'get help with this page' link just asks for an email address and a description of your query, I thought there used to be an instant chat option. I may have to give them a call instead.

Sipowicz

I think you may have misunderstood!

molerat

hayleydaley wrote: »

I phoned up and a nice gentlemen was very helpful. Got my letter woth qualifying years and amount, didn't realise you get extra for pension being opted out. Too 2 weeks to arrive. Very pleased with the service I had

You do not get extra for being contracted out, you in fact get a deduction from your "new" pension figure. If it is showing you a SP figure + a COPE figure = £xxx then that is not what you will get. The COPE is what you have lost from your pension due to contracting out and may / should be replaced by the pension you were in at the time. As I posted above, this misleading calculation has now been removed from the on line service.

SnowMan

Good article on This is Money about paying class 3 voluntary contributions

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-3627480/Can-pay-extra-NI-state-pension-155-65-week.html

Interesting that the former Pensions Minister says that the online forecasts do not show the starting amount calculation on the old and new basis, after it was dropped from the paper versions, but also implies this is essential information to decide whether to pay (pre April 2016) class 3 voluntary contributions :rotfl:

My take is that they are inadvertently making it impossible for people to make an informed decision on whether to pay class 3 voluntary contributions by not making the required information readily available.

If anyone is sending feedback on the new online system (a feedback form pops up after you logout sometimes), then it would be useful to mention (if you agree) that the calculation of the starting amount on the old and new rules basis should be automatically provided.

gadgetmind

My wife is in exactly this position. I *think* her calculations are done on "new" basis, but she was contracted out way back in the early 90s, so we can't remember how long for and what she was earning.

Mushrooms.

edit:
We did get paper statements for her from 2009 onwards which show additional state pension of 43p in 2009 but this dropped to 0p by 2011. Dunno why!

She's now on 31 years, so I'm guessing £155.65*(31/35)=£137.86 and a £17.22 deduction for contracting out.

It would be trivially easy for them to remove the guesswork from this.

Moondance

Hello folks.

I wonder whether I might ask for some advice. If this is the wrong forum, I apologise.

Up to 5 April 2014 I had 30 qualifying years (I was contracted out for many of those years). I had not been working for several years previously. At the time I thought the impending changes meant I would need 35 years for entitlement to a full pension, so in August 2014 I purchased years 2008-09 to 2012-13, 5 years in total, so making 35 qualifying years.

My pension statement estimates £125.59, and £154.04 is the most if I continue to contribute. My cope estimate is £42.54.

Did I make a big mistake by buying those 5 years? Have those 5 years bought any advantage at all? If the answer is no, would I be able to explain my mistake to HMRC and ask them to expunge the extra years from my record and refund my £3.3k?

Thanks in advance for any help.

p00hsticks

Moondance wrote: »

My pension statement estimates £125.59, and £154.04 is the most if I continue to contribute. My cope estimate is £42.54.

Did I make a big mistake by buying those 5 years? Have those 5 years bought any advantage at all? If the answer is no, would I be able to explain my mistake to HMRC and ask them to expunge the extra years from my record and refund my £3.3k?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Unfortunately, I don't think you've achieved anything by buying those pre-2016 years. To increase your pension further you need to wait and buy additonal years post 2016 (up to the year prior to when you reach State Retirement Age)

I'm not aware of any mechanism for getting a refund on volumtary comtributions if you change your mind, but for £3.3k it;s got to be worth a call to HMRC to see what they say

Moondance

p00hsticks wrote: »

Unfortunately, I don't think you've achieved anything by buying those pre-2016 years. To increase your pension further you need to wait and buy additonal years post 2016 (up to the year prior to when you reach State Retirement Age)

I'm not aware of any mechanism for getting a refund on volumtary comtributions if you change your mind, but for £3.3k it;s got to be worth a call to HMRC to see what they say

P00hsticks, thank you for your reply. I think I'll write to HMRC and see what sort of response I get. Maybe they can excercise discretion in a case like this. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has made this mistake!

OldSocks

I log in and see this:
Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2016: 117.38
Estimate if you contribute another 9 years before April 2039: 155.65
COPE: 16.48

1. Does this mean if I never work again, my state pension will pay 117.38 or 117.38 - 16.48 = 100.90 ?
2. If I work another 9 years will my state pension will pay 155.65 or 155.65 - 16.48 = 139.17 ?

I can't see anything stating whether the estimated has already factored in the COPE deduction, nor if it is possible to recover the COPE deduction by getting more qualifying years. I suppose I am wondering if it is possible for me to ever get the state pension payment of 155.65. BTW, I know the COPE amount should in theory be paid by my private pension.