State Pension

bella111

I have noticed most of my friends get between £30 to £50 State Pension more than me, am I being penalised for paying into a private scheme for 40 years.

tacpot12

No, the state contributed some of your National Insurance contributions to your private pension so you should not have lost out.

MK62

What levels are you comparing?
It could also be down to them having built up more SERPS/S2P....

AnotherJoe

bella111 wrote: »

I have noticed most of my friends get between £30 to £50 State Pension more than me, am I being penalised for paying into a private scheme for 40 years.

Is your private scheme plus SP more than £30 to £50 more than your friends?
From what I've seen everyone who paid into a private scheme (and opted out of SERPS) , when you sum the lower SP and private pension, will be higher than the SP alone from someone who didn't do that..

Jack_Itin

It certainly FEELS that way......a couple of friends are getting the full SP......I don't......but then I realized that I am getting about £600 a month private pension and they don't......but it still feels like you are being "victimised" for contracting out.....

Mojisola

Jack_Itin wrote: »

I am getting about £600 a month private pension and they don't......but it still feels like you are being "victimised" for contracting out.....

You contracted out - why would expect to get the same as the people who continued to pay in?

Jack_Itin

Mojisola wrote: »

You contracted out - why would expect to get the same as the people who continued to pay in?

I don't......but it stills FEELS like it

PasturesNew

It sounds like they'd get the basic state pension and have no other income at all, so they'd be getting a "top up" of Pension Credit/whatever, bringing their total income to about £150-160/week or so (single person level).

So they'd get, say, £80/week pension and about £80/week to bring them up to the "minimum income" amount of about £160/week.

You'd get the £80/week, but as you're getting £150/week private pension, your income is £230/week, which is over the £160/week minimum.

You're better off as you have all that extra disposable income of about £70/week more than they'll have... and it comes every week. While they're sitting at home staring out of the window each day, alone, you can be down the pub being fed a nice hot pub meal and a pint with friends.

You're not "victimised", they've had the benefit of "charity" to bring them up to a level where they can buy a new cardigan just before winter and have the heating on for more than 3 hours/day when it gets very cold. While they're sitting there in their cardigan, alone, checking the clock for how long the heating's been on .... you're in the warm pub, having a hot pub meal and a pint with friends.

Jack_Itin

I only felt that way initially.....couple of pals get £164 a week......I only get £147 (poss. £152)......I also get about £550 per month from private pension, they don't, so no complaints here.....sorry to OP if I have hijacked your thread.........

GunJack

It still astounds me that people don't appreciate what contracting out into a.n. other (extra) pension has done for them.....almost always be better off like that than with SERPS/S2P.

brewerdave

GunJack wrote: »

It still astounds me that people don't appreciate what contracting out into a.n. other (extra) pension has done for them.....almost always be better off like that than with SERPS/S2P.

...unfortunately, the longer term benefits have never been well explained (see, for example, https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5843577/surprise-pension-pot) - certainly people of my era (born in the 50s) were just extremely grateful to pay less NI at the time, and gave little or no thought to a potential "windfall" at retirement age.:)