New State Pension Guide

p00hsticks

molerat wrote: »

That is the largest COPE I have seen mentioned so far, I thought mine was pretty impressive at £74.82.

Mine's quoted at £81.91 a week, but like julianhodgearepants the transitional rules mean that my starting amount is under the old rules and is around £123.

I also have enough time to make voluntary contributions to taker it up to the £155 maximum as well as a DB pension of more than the COPE amount that kicks in at age 60, so I'm a definite winner.

molerat

I am not going to quite make it, 4.3 £ years short with only 3 years to go

marinheiro

I just looked at the DWP site. This gives me a pension date of 6/3/2020, and tells me I have a forecast pension of £156.64, 43 years of full contributions, and a COPE estimate of £76.34. I'm not sure I understand this correctly, but I take this to mean that my gross pension in the new scheme would have been 156.64 - 76.34 = 80.30, and that since this is less than the old pension amount of £119.30 plus whatever SERPS I earned pre-1989, the actual amount I will receive will be £119.30 plus a little bit more.

If my understanding is right then my first question is, is it possible for me to pay additional contributions to increase my SP? I believe it may be, but if so the DWP site certainly has this information well hidden. Is there a proper description of the rules and the process involved somewhere?

A second question is, can I find out what the extra (if any) I will get above the (old) basic for my pre-1989 contracted-in years would be? Do you get told this if you request the paper estimate? Or is there a simple formula to calculate it?

Thanks for any advice!

molerat

Do you not have more than one value shown ? Mine has 3 values shown and says "you have £xxx.xx based on your NI record at April 2015" - the amount accumulated to date - but the top line says my estimate at SPA is £150 ish - the amount I can get with post 2016 contributions. If you only have the one figure and it states "you cannot improve your forecast" then that is what you have now and cannot get any more.

marinheiro

molerat wrote: »

Do you not have more than one value shown ? Mine has 3 values shown and says "you have £xxx.xx based on your NI record at April 2015" - the amount accumulated to date - but the top line says my estimate at SPA is £150 ish - the amount I can get with post 2016 contributions. If you only have the one figure and it states "you cannot improve your forecast" then that is what you have now and cannot get any more.

I definitely only have one figure shown.
So you think the single figure plus "you cannot improve your forecast" means I don't need to subtract the COPE figure? Or just that there's nothing I can do to improve the final figure?

greenglide

So never, never, ever need to subtract the COPE amount.

They don't need to even mention this as it only causes confusion.

So what it shows should be the amount you get without taking anything off.

marinheiro

In that case I'm very pleased. Thanks both! Also a little confused - I've been contracted out for so long I didn't expect to get much over the basic old pension, though I am also relieved - some of my non-state pensions turned out to be complete scams.

I shall leave it for a bit then ask for the written estimate as confirmation and leave it at that.

xylophone

I just looked at the DWP site. This gives me a pension date of 6/3/2020, and tells me I have a forecast pension of £156.64, 43 years of full contributions, and a COPE estimate of £76.34.

See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71428402#Comment_71428402

post 40.

xylophone

And also see post 52 here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71177300#Comment_71177300

You will note that despite a number of years contracted out, the poster is only just short of full NSP.

Billopp

“
I just looked at the DWP site. This gives me a pension date of 6/3/2020, and tells me I have a forecast pension of £156.64, 43 years of full contributions, and a COPE estimate of £76.34.

Is this possible? or is it a mistake.