Reduced State Pension?

jofl

I've been in the lucky position of never needing to take any notice of my financial situation until now. I am a 65 year old woman & have only ever worked in part time or low paid jobs. I have recently looked at the Tax website & found out that I have made 9 full years of National Insurance contributions & a few part years. Silly question maybe but does this mean I have earned enough go get at least a partial State Pension? If so, does it pay out automatically or would it have to be claimed in some way?
Thank You

neilvw

Are you really 65 or is that a typo?

If correct, you reached State Pension age at some time between ages 60 years 5 months and 61 years 5 months, depending on your date of birth.
https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age

You would come under the old (pre-April 2016) rules which specified no minimum number of years and had much more generous treatment of State Pension deferral (you have been deferring, if you are 65).

You do need to claim to get State Pension and should have received a letter four months prior to State Pension age.

If you kindly confirm your age then we can look at your options.

jofl

Thank you for the reply. I was actually being a bit shy. I had my 67th birthday last month.

neilvw

That means you come under the 'old old' rules (pre-April 2010) as you reached State Pension age (60) in August 2009, at which time a woman needed 10 years to qualify for any State Pension.

You're now out of time to make Class 3 voluntary contributions. I think your only possible option would be to buy the new State Pension top-up which costs about £847 per £1 a week, up to a maximum of £25 per week (which costs about £21,175). And that's if you're even eligible for a top-up while being entitled to no State Pension as a starting point - not too sure on that.

Someone more knowledgeable might be able to confirm if you have any other options.

maximumgardener

def under old system then at 67.

best phone and claim your state pension on phone

best time 0800 or just after (Mon - Friday)
tel 0800 731 7898

have your NI number handy

missbiggles1

As you could've claimed your pension 7 years ago, it'll be more than the amount you would normally expect to get for those number of years. Deferring an old style pension for a year increases it by 10.4%, if you take it as a rise in pension, but you could also take it as a lump sum.

http://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/money/retirement/pensions/should-you-defer-your-state-pension

neilvw

As I stated though, it looks like no State Pension is payable for the OP as she has less than 10 years and comes under the pre-April 2010 system.

By all means ring to check though, and let us know what they say - worth asking if State Pension top-up is available to you as well.

jofl

At the risk of sounding like I'm wooly-headed, I also had gaps in my employment to bring up children. I don't know if I was credited any NI years for this. I don't know if any child allowance was claimed in my name or if it was done under my husband (at the time) name. The website doesn't go back to when I left school & there are no details for the early years. I'm afraid that if I ring them, they'll just ask questions that I don't know the answers to.

atush

Best to call them, and find out if your part years will bring you up to 10 years?

And were you ever married? If so (you said you had kids) you would qualify under your husbands contribution record for a 60% pension?

neilvw

If you don't have all the information you can ring them back later.

This seems relevant:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/173/pdfs/uksiem_20150173_en.pdf

Provisions in these Regulations
Minimum qualifying period (regulation 13)

7.16 Before 2010, a person could not receive any basic state pension unless they had
enough qualifying years to entitle them to at least 25 per cent. This meant a woman
would normally need a minimum of 10 qualifying years and a man 11.9

7.17 This de minimis rule disproportionately affected women who took time out of
employment to care for children at home, because childcare responsibilities did not
then attract a contribution credit. Instead, they qualified a person for “Home
Responsibilities Protection” (HRP) which worked by reducing the number of
qualifying years they needed. A woman with 20 HRP years (the maximum
possible) would therefore still need at least 5 qualifying years (out of a reduced requirement of 19 for a full basic state pension) to get any basic state pension.

7.18 The 25 per cent de minimis was abolished for people reaching state pension age on or after 6 April 2010 as part of the reforms introduced by the Pensions Act 2007 to
improve coverage among women. ...

So you may need less than 10 years. Definitely worth a call.

xylophone

See the claim form here - you could print out and complete and post it or could telephone with all the information in front of you.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/324636/br1.pdf