35 years for full pension?

Eilagoss

When I rang the Givernment Department to check my state pension I was informed that although I had 40+ years as I had stopped working before retirement age I would receive a lower amount if I didn't either claim for looking after dependants or pay the missing years. Can someone check and confirm this. The Man at Deot if works and pensions said many are being misled by the "if you have 35 years you will get a full pension."!

JGB1955

35 years no longer guarantees a full pension. The rules changed in 2016.

tacpot12

To get the new State Pension, you have to have 35 "full" years of NI contributions. You may have paid some NI in every one of 40+ years, but you need to have paid enough in each year for the year to be regarded as a full year. How many full years do you have?

The man at the DWP is probably correct that many people are hearing "if you have 35 years of NI contributions you will get a full pension" to mean "if you have paid any NI in at least 35 years you will get a full pension". 

Silvertabby

Only if those 35/40 years are full - ie, as in not contracted out of SERPS/SP2.

Most of us who have just reached SPA/ are due to reach SPA soon have at least some contracted out years, and so fall under transitional arrangements.  Only those who started work after April 2016 fall fully under the new rules.

xylophone

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

You were in a contracted out pension scheme for a number of years?

What exactly does your forecast say?
At 6/4/16, two calculations were done.

NI years/30 x £119.30 (Full Basic SP) + (Additional State Pension - Deduction for Contracting Out).

(NI years/35 x £155.65 (Full NSP)) - Contracted Out Pension Equivalent.

Your starting amount was the higher of the two.

For those whose SA was less than a full NSP, there was the possibility of improving the pension by contributions or credits.

However, if you already had thirty years by 6/4/16,  only  contributions for full years post 6/4/16 up to your SPA  would count.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210299/single-tier-valuation-contracting-out.pdf

Langtang

I seem to remember someone - Silvertabby? - mentioning that although the Gov't website says you have X amount of full years NI contributions (like myself - 40 years, but have been contracted out at certain times but does not show on my NI history) it may still be incorrect. I believe they had one hell of a job putting it right.

Does anyone know of a way of contacting about this without having to telephone. Email, address?

Marcon

Write to your local pension centre: https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-centre

xylophone

it may still be incorrect.

What exactly does your forecast say?

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

Are you disputing the number of qualifying years or the fact that you were contracted out?
See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/75900968#Comment_75900968

Silvertabby

Langtang said:

I seem to remember someone - Silvertabby? - mentioning that although the Gov't website says you have X amount of full years NI contributions (like myself - 40 years, but have been contracted out at certain times but does not show on my NI history) it may still be incorrect. I believe they had one hell of a job putting it right.

Does anyone know of a way of contacting about this without having to telephone. Email, address?

I think that was when I was talking about people who were in the LGPS (or any other contracted out pension scheme for that matter) who left or opted out and took a refund of their contributions.  When that happened, their NI rebate was recovered from the refund and paid to HMRC in order to put them back into SERPS/SP2 for that period (or now count towards the new single tier pension).

The system usually worked, but any problems tended not to be identified until years later, when they were almost impossible to resolve.  Typical problem would be that the soon-to-be State pensioner found that their State pension record included a period of contracted out service with the LGPS, which indicated that they had pension rights with us.  On telling the ex-member that they didn't have a pension, because they had taken a refund, I would try to sort things out by writing to HMRC to say that Mrs X had been a member of the LGPS from ... to ... but as she had taken a refund of her contributions her CEP of £X had been paid to HMRC on .....

Unfortunately, CEPs weren't sent individually.  The accounts dept would save them up until the end of the month, then send a cheque for £XXXX with a list of names, NI numbers, and individual amounts.

My request to re-instate Mrs X into SERPS/SP2 would then be met with a letter from HMRC saying that they didn't have a record of the payment, and asking for the cheque number, amount, at least 3 more names from the list, and date the cheque was cashed.  These letters basically said that if I was unable to supply all of this information, then I needn't bother contacting them again.

20 or so years down the line, the Accts Dept didn't have this information so there was nothing else I could do.

Langtang

Thank you very much to everyone for the replies, and sorry for hijacking this thread. This is what it exactly says on my gov’t page:

 “Your forecast is: £175.37 a week. You have: 42 years of full contributions & 9 years to contribute before 5 April 2029. You do not have any gaps in your record. Your COPE estimate is £22.12 a week”

I contracted out of serps into a private Guardian Choices pension in 89\90 for a decade. There is nothing within those years to say I had contracted out. Is this normal? If I were to retire tomorrow, would I be confident in getting the above figure, or should I double check it with DWP? (appreciate that I wouldn’t get it tomorrow, but 2029)

jamesd

The man at DWP is right. The 2016 changes made it 35 years for a person who had their first work or credit year in 2016.

That doesn't apply to anyone reaching state pension age in the next 30 years. Those people get their pension calculated with both old and new rules and get the higher of the two.

What you having 40 years but getting less tells us is that you probably had many years in jobs with a good defined benefit pension like final or average salary. Those normally opted people out of the earnings-related part of the state pension. Either the work pension will include that or the person paid lower NI. Sometimes it's due to mostly having credits instead of worked years.

In this situation the 2016 changes introduced a new opportunity: to use credits or bought years from 2016 or later to increase the state pension beyond what the old rules 30 year cap allowed. If you can do this it's normally a good idea. It's what the DWP man was describing.