How much to live on

jevbanx1

Hello Baron Dale
I didn't know we could pay NI voluntarily? I'm going to look into that. Thank you. Enjoy your day 

[Deleted User]

Yes you can! However do check if voluntary payments for certain years will actually increase your state pension entitlement. In some cases it may not. I know that if I make 2023/2024 a full year it will increase my state pension from about £197 a week to just over £203 a week. I am pleased with that considering I was opted out for many years. 

I suggest you set up a government gateway account and check out your state pension forecast and NI record. That should also let you know if additional voluntary NI payments will increase your state pension or not.

Wednesday2000

We went out to a concert in a local park on Friday night, Ibiza Orchestra. We went with our friend who is a very youthful 70 year old. We missed the last train home and he stayed over at our house overnight and I remembered to ask him about his pension the next morning as I was interested! Exciting life I lead.

He is married to a woman of my age (47) and he said he has a drawdown pension so he just takes out what they need to live on. He said that pension will last until they are 90 years old and then life insurance will kick in. I only spoke to him briefly about it.

[Deleted User]

I thought life insurance ‘kicked’ in when you were dead!  There again he should still have his state pension. I imagine his wife is still working.
Wednesday 2000 what are your retirement finances looking like at the moment?

BooJewels

[Deleted User] said:

Yes you can! However do check if voluntary payments for certain years will actually increase your state pension entitlement. In some cases it may not. I know that if I make 2023/2024 a full year it will increase my state pension from about £197 a week to just over £203 a week. I am pleased with that considering I was opted out for many years. 

I suggest you set up a government gateway account and check out your state pension forecast and NI record. That should also let you know if additional voluntary NI payments will increase your state pension or not.

£203.85 is the maximum state pension currently, so it is the max you could get.

@jevbanx1   The Government recently extended the deadline by which you can pay back earlier years (back to 2006 I think), as the system was overloaded with people claiming, so they've added about 2 years to the deadline for doing that.  But as Baron_Dale suggested, log in/sign up to the Government Gateway and it will show how many qualifying years you have and how much you can improve what you might get, with voluntary additional payments - you might not be able to.  They have however been asking for only people very close to pension age to ring first, as the system is overloaded - they're working on an on-line system to be able to pay, rather than ringing first.  There's currently no automated system where you can make a payment, you need to speak to them and they work it out and send you a payment reference.  It's such a hot subject here now, they've created a specific board for discussing it.

I'm self-employed and wasn't overly worried about how much I'd get until my husband died, then it suddenly became very important.  I've managed to pay back 6 earlier years and as long as I pay 2 of the next 4 years, I too will get the max amount, plus about £11 extra per week as I've inherited half of my husband's protected payment.  I'm now in a system where they send me a bill each September for the previous tax year and I just pay it through the bank.  Getting all of that sorted has been a real weight off and very well worth doing.

Wednesday2000

[Deleted User] said:

I thought life insurance ‘kicked’ in when you were dead!  There again he should still have his state pension. I imagine his wife is still working.
Wednesday 2000 what are your retirement finances looking like at the moment?

She does part time work. I meant life insurance would kick in if one of them was alive after 90 years old!

Nothing much has changed since I posted on here in May, except that I have been diagnosed with Osteoarthritis, but not Rheumatoid Arthritis, thankfully.

I have read some of that retirement guide I bought. I know most of it from reading on here and other financial sites. I might read some more today, actually.

Pollycat

jevbanx1 said:

Hello Baron Dale
I didn't know we could pay NI voluntarily? I'm going to look into that. Thank you. Enjoy your day 

Hope over to the Pensions board.
There's lots of discussion on voluntary contributions and I think there may even be a new sub board specifically for that.

BooJewels

There is @Pollycat - I posted a link to it above.

longhill

BooJewels can I ask about your husbands protected payment that you will get is that from his state pension. My husband died end of 2020 l have top-up my state pension so I will get the full amount. I have 6 years to go before I get my pension.Haven't heard anything about been able to get anything from my husbands pension. Many Thanks

BooJewels

longhill said:

BooJewels can I ask about your husbands protected payment that you will get is that from his state pension. My husband died end of 2020 l have top-up my state pension so I will get the full amount. I have 6 years to go before I get my pension.Haven't heard anything about been able to get anything from my husbands pension. Many Thanks

I'll have to dig the paperwork out later to check the details for you - see if there's a specific department you can ring etc. I'm not in my office at the moment. Yes, it is a state pension amount.  I was talking to them about topping up these missing years and had told them it was because my husband had died and she told me about this protected payment that might be part of his pension and if it was, I'd get half of whatever he would have got.  I had to give his NiNo and authorisation to do it and she said she'd start the search process, but it might take several months before I heard.

After a few weeks I got a letter saying he had a protected payment of £20.68 per week, so I'd get £10.34 per week extra - I think it's gone up by the same amount as the pension since - I think it's possibly the same amount as extra years of NI - so two would now be £11.64 per week.