New State Pension Guide

JaveaSteve

xylophone said:

What was your COPE?

xylophone, I am unable to find any reference to my COPE.  Have looked on line GOV.UK and through all correspondence, no trace.  For info, checked my NI contributions and have 40 years full and 9 years not full that states if I can make up the shortfall ip if I pay £780 by 5th April 2023.  However reading the above I'm confused as if it would be of benefit to me.  

jem16

JaveaSteve said:

xylophone said:

What was your COPE?

xylophone, I am unable to find any reference to my COPE.  Have looked on line GOV.UK and through all correspondence, no trace.  For info, checked my NI contributions and have 40 years full and 9 years not full that states if I can make up the shortfall ip if I pay £780 by 5th April 2023.  However reading the above I'm confused as if it would be of benefit to me.  

Paying for tax year 2016/17 will be of benefit to you and the current price for that year is £780. It will go up in April. You won't make up to full nSP but it will give you an increase of roughly £4.80pw.

jem16

molerat said:

You should still be able to purchase 2016-17 which will give you an extra £4.82 a week and I believe it will be backdated.  As you have 35 or more pre 2016 years you cannot purchase any more.  

I've never been able to find out if it will be backdated. Everything I've read suggests not but I'd like to be sure. Do you have anything to confirm one way or another?

Perfect_Choice

jem16 said:

Suffolk_lass said:

molerat, after you posted the quoted text in my reply JaveaSteve said he gave up work in 2008 - so he is eligible to top up his pension by paying for the tax years since he stopped work. I have also stopped work with 44 years of full NI Contributions but I will still be making voluntary contributions for this year and the next three tax years before that in which I reach SPA to maximise my entitlement to the new state pension. Like JaveaSteve I was opted out of SERPS for most of those 44 years, so only earned entitlement to the basic state pension during that time.

As molerat has said, only years from April 2016 onwards would make any difference. Paying for years from 2008 to 2016 would not improve his pension and would be a waste of money. 

Active discussion I see on this forum one the past few days so I'll contribute as well on a related query. It's regarding my wife who has 40 years on NI contributions, however has not reached the maximum new state pension amount yet (she starts her state pension on 1 Oct 2023). Now the gap is down to a 3 years she contributed out of Serps due to a company pension, but the bulk of missed years is due to not working and she has a batch of years between 2011-12 and 2015-16 inclusive with no NI contributions.  However as she is under the new state pension, contributing to any of those years will not increase her statement pension forecast I have been told before, so still correct?  What confuses me a little is that looking at https://www.royallondon.com/media/good-with-your-money-guides/topping-up-your-state-pension/,  it states under "Which years can I pay Class 3 contributions for?" under Note 5  on page 16, that "You can top up your NI record for years from 2006/07 onwards. You need to do this by 5 April 2023."  But is this for those who have not be able to pay NI for up to 35 years in the first place, not those wanting to make volunteering contributions to reach the maximum new state pension of £168.60 today (she is currently at £156.71)? The current plan to bridge the gap is to keep making voluntary contributions for future years available as my wife is unlikely to be working before she reaches state pension age. She has 4 years she can still make voluntary contributions in the future being 2019-20 through to 2022-23, so enough to get to the maximum new state pension anyway.  But the previous years before 2016 are stated at a lower cost than today including 1 year when she partly paid NI contributions, so would be cheaper to get the extra years she needs. But as I note jem16 and molerat stated earlier, these earlier years would not increase her new state pension forecast anyway even if paid, so correct to ignore these? It also begs the question why would anybody want to pay pre-2016 "not full NI contribution" years anyway? I guess there are other benefits people can get where previous years would help for payments received, but the new state pension effectively re-baselined things when introduced in 2016, this anything before them is no longer relevant.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Don't forget her third year will only be worth less than half the first two.

Paying pre 2016 years can increase the forecast for some people.  You might be best phoning the Future Pension Centre part of DWP to get a definitive answer for the pre 2016 years.

Has your wife considered becoming self employed?  That opens up voluntary Class 2 NIC at £156/year (maybe a touch more next tax year).

Perfect_Choice

Yes the third year may not be worth it but next 2 years definitely worth it for sure. I think we will do that phone call to the Future Pension Centre just to be sure. Thanks

Dazed_and_C0nfused

It probably is worth it, especially at class 2 rates, just not the outstanding value a full year is 

jem16

Perfect_Choice said:

jem16 said:

Suffolk_lass said:

molerat, after you posted the quoted text in my reply JaveaSteve said he gave up work in 2008 - so he is eligible to top up his pension by paying for the tax years since he stopped work. I have also stopped work with 44 years of full NI Contributions but I will still be making voluntary contributions for this year and the next three tax years before that in which I reach SPA to maximise my entitlement to the new state pension. Like JaveaSteve I was opted out of SERPS for most of those 44 years, so only earned entitlement to the basic state pension during that time.

As molerat has said, only years from April 2016 onwards would make any difference. Paying for years from 2008 to 2016 would not improve his pension and would be a waste of money. 

But is this for those who have not be able to pay NI for up to 35 years in the first place, not those wanting to make volunteering contributions to reach the maximum new state pension of £168.60 today (she is currently at £156.71)?

Basically, yes.

jem16

Perfect_Choice said:

Yes the third year may not be worth it but next 2 years definitely worth it for sure. I think we will do that phone call to the Future Pension Centre just to be sure. Thanks

Always best to do that and HMRC are now asking if you have done before they will let you pay.

Basic rule of thumb;

35 years by 5th April 2016 : nothing prior to April 2016 will improve your state pension.

30 years but less than 35 years by 5th April 2016 : Depends on your Starting Amount ( ie based on old or new rules) whether pre 2016 will help or not.

Less than 30 years by 5th April 2016 : Pre 2016 years should help as well as post 2016 years.

xylophone

xylophone, I am unable to find any reference to my COPE. 

See page 56 of this thread - did you obtain a new state pension forecast?

See page 6 of this 

https://www.royallondon.com/siteassets/site-docs/media-centre/good-with-your-money-guides/gwymg-1b-topping-up-state-pension-2019-interactive.pdf

and follow the arrows - it seems that you can still buy 2016-17.