Understanding gaps in nat ins. record and COPE and forecast etc etc etc

Mistermeaner

Hi

Prompted by the "check your records" post I had a look online at my records to find the following:

I am 39 (40 later this year)
I turned 16 in 1995 and left highschool in 1996
I was in college 1996-1998
Then university 1998-2004
Finished uni in 2004 and been full time employed without break since

My nat ins. record is as follows:

- 20 years of full contributions

- 4 years when I did not contribute enough (98-99, 01-02, 02-03, 03-04) ; this were years I was in full time university (full time in the loosest sense of the word :beer: )

- 28 years remaining to make contributions

- Pension available on XXX 2047

- Forecast amount if I contribute another 11 years: £168.60/week

- Estimate based on my current contributions £116.84/week

- I have been contracted out; my COPE amount is £1.11/week


QUESTIONS:

Do the above calcs look roughly correct?

If I contribute the suggested further 11 years I will have only 31 full years... so how come I qualify for the full amount (I thought you needed 35 years)?

No idea when I was 'COPED' - I only have a DC pension and have never been public sector or DB etc - where can I get details on this (no info in the 'view details' tab of record)

I will write to HMRC about the shortfall years; I presume I just need to prove I was in full time education to get these years added to my record (although being as I only apparently need 11 more years it might be moot point anyway). Any comments on this?



Thanks

xylophone

I will write to HMRC about the shortfall years; I presume I just need to prove I was in full time education to get these years added to my record

No - there are no credits for tertiary education years.

You are in the transition group.

At 6/4/16

NI years/30 x £119.30) + (Additional State Pension - deduction for contracting out)

(NI years/35 x £155.65) - COPE.

Your starting amount was the higher of the two.




It was less than a new state pension - to achieve a full new state pension you needed whatever number of years was required to bring you up to the full figure.

Once reached you continue to contribute (if you are working and earning the appropriate amount) but it will not benefit your SP which will increase by whatever measure the government chooses (currently triple lock) in the intervening years.

molerat

Firstly ignore 35 years as this is only applicable to those starting out post 2016.


You have 3 post 2016 years so your starting amount was £94.52. This was calculated as the higher of the new £75.55 - £1.11 COPE or the old £67.66 basic + £26.86 S2P. That amount of S2P over 17 years was easily achievable with little contracted out service. You then needed to make that up to £155.65 so 155.65 - 94.52 = 61.13 / 4.45 = 14 years.

Linton

Mistermeaner wrote: »

Hi

Prompted by the "check your records" post I had a look online at my records to find the following:

I am 39 (40 later this year)
I turned 16 in 1995 and left highschool in 1996
I was in college 1996-1998
Then university 1998-2004
Finished uni in 2004 and been full time employed without break since

My nat ins. record is as follows:

- 20 years of full contributions

- 4 years when I did not contribute enough (98-99, 01-02, 02-03, 03-04) ; this were years I was in full time university (full time in the loosest sense of the word :beer: )

- 28 years remaining to make contributions

- Pension available on XXX 2047

- Forecast amount if I contribute another 11 years: £168.60/week

- Estimate based on my current contributions £116.84/week

- I have been contracted out; my COPE amount is £1.11/week


QUESTIONS:

Do the above calcs look roughly correct?

with the minimal information - yes.

If I contribute the suggested further 11 years I will have only 31 full years... so how come I qualify for the full amount (I thought you needed 35 years)?

35 years only applies to people who spend their whole working life under the post 2016 SP scheme. If you were contracted in under the old scheme you accrued additional pension beyond the basic level which is now included in your SP total.

No idea when I was 'COPED' - I only have a DC pension and have never been public sector or DB etc - where can I get details on this (no info in the 'view details' tab of record)

£1.11 is very small for a COPE. Did you have any short term employment whilst at university/college? Also, some employers DC schemes were contracted out.

I will write to HMRC about the shortfall years; I presume I just need to prove I was in full time education to get these years added to my record (although being as I only apparently need 11 more years it might be moot point anyway). Any comments on this?

At that time you got NI credits if you were in full time education whilst 16,17 and 18. I didnt think post 18 university students got them. Could some of it be due to the tax year not being aligned with the academic year? Again did you do any paid work at all whilst at university? It may be interesting to find out what happened but it doesnt seem to matter very much.

Mistermeaner

Linton wrote: »

At that time you got NI credits if you were in full time education whilst 16,17 and 18. I didnt think post 18 university students got them. Could some of it be due to the tax year not being aligned with the academic year? Again did you do any paid work at all whilst at university? It may be interesting to find out what happened but it doesnt seem to matter very much.

Thanks all for info much appreciated - hopefully the calcs will be useful to others who have perhaps more complex affairs. My mission appears clear which is work for at least 11 more years.

Ref the above I'll write to ask for more details but think you might be correct - I worked most holidays and particularly over the long summer. Lots of tempt agency stuff so likely paid a bit of tax and nat ins. I remember always reclaiming tax paid due to low earnings (in the days when I could walk into my local tax office without an appointment)

I also vaguely remember receiving letters about under contributing on nat ins. and binning them in favour of 4 cans of labbatts

oh the days