Awful quandary re. pension.

gatita

This is a query for a friend of mine who is not very computer savvy.
\my friend only started working full time five years ago. She is now 53 and her retirement age will be 67 at the moment. The Company she works for pays 2 % into the new pension scheme. and my friend pays the minimum at the moment.

If she for example she pays £300 per month into the scheme, I understand the Government will match this amount? On reaching her retirement age, if she has not paid in the minimum at least (10 years towards the State Pension) what happens to this "pot"? It is all so confusing! We would be SOOOOOOO grateful for advice from someone that knows about this.

worried_jim

gatita wrote: »

If she for example she pays £300 per month into the scheme, I understand the Government will match this amount?

No. She will get tax relief on it, i'm guessing 20% for your friend, so £300 will only cost her £240ish.

Linton

Her company pension is nothing to do with State Pension. The pot will remain in her name no matter whether she has the NI years for a State Pension or not.

gatita

Thank you jim for your reply, the thing she is wondering about is she won't have paid in enough to get a full state pension, what happens? Sorry if it seems I am talking nonsense!

Daniel54

Your friend should obtain a state pension forecast ,which will establish how many NI years ( credited or earned) she already has.

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

gatita

Ahhhhhhhhhhh Thank you Linton, our posts must have crossed, or you read my mind lol

badmemory

If she ever claimed child benefit then she may well have 12 years credits for her state pension. Same with carer's allowance.

gatita

Thank you Bad Memory, Yes, she did have child benefit for 3 years but this was in the early 90's. Would this count?

molerat

Yes it would count. She needs to get that state pension statement.

atush

Plus she will have 3 years added from ages 16-18. Plus she may have gotten Nics from working part time if she worked enough hours/earned enough.

So probably has at least 6 more years than she thinks. Plus she will continue gaining years as she works going forwards.

Ge the statement as above.

Alan_Brown

Once she has the statement, she should see if there are any past NI years she can buy. I did this for a year of NI I missed while working abroad. It was a waste of money for me as the government reduced the number of years you needed to contribute down from 44 years to (I think) 35.