Basic State Pension Top-Up Entitlement

dajsmith

I believe that my mum should be entitled to the basic state pension  top-up but she is currently not claiming it.
She was born in December 1948 but hasn’t made any NI contributions at all because she stayed at home to bring us up. My dad was born in February 1951, so was at the state retirement age by 6th April 2016 and claims the basic state pension.
Am I right to believe that my mum is entitled to the equivalent of 60% of what my dad receives and that this should be back-paid to when she reached retirement age? I should mention that they’re still married and still live together.

If so, who should they get in touch with and what’s the best way to do it?
Apparently they did try a few years ago and spent hours on the phone and were told that she wasn’t entitled to the basic state pension because she hasn’t made any NI contributions, but I fear they might not have used the correct terminology about getting the pension top-up.
Has anyone had any success with this recently?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

She would need to contact DWP.

This will be worth a read.

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/11/new-unit-to-pay-women-back-100m-in-underpaid-state-pensions-are-you-owed-money/

Silvertabby

My understanding is that this top up is only paid to women who opted to pay married woman's reduced NI contributions (hence the link to the husband's NI contributions), not to anyone who has never paid any NI.

Accept I may be wrong, so worth contacting DWP.

Mojisola

If she's not entitled to a pension and their joint weekly is less than £265.20, they could apply for Pension Credit.

xylophone

She was born in December 1948 but hasn’t made any NI contributions at all because she stayed at home to bring us up.

She reached SPA in December 2008.

Your father reached SPA in February 2016.

Both come under the old state pension scheme.

Are you saying that when your mother reached SPA she received no state pension at all?

Or  that she received a very small state pension (under around £54 a week)? 

Nothing changed when your father reached SPA?

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-9095939/Married-women-missing-rightful-state-pensions.html

What (if anything) does she currently receive as state pension? Is it less than £80.45 a week?

See https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs19_state_pension_fcs.pdf

from P15 under Basic State Pension.

dajsmith

Hello, my mother never received any basic state pension payments as she hadn’t personally made any NI contributions. So I guess what I’m trying to find out is if you need to have made some contributions to get the basic state pension top up based on my father’s contributions or if she is entitled to the top up regardless of having made no NI contributions previously?

xylophone

See Annex A page 21 here  which sets out the arrangements under the old state pension system

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181235/derived-inherited-entitlement.pdf

You say that your mother was not eligible for any state pension in 2008 when she reached SPA.

You also indicate that your father was eligible for a full basic  SP on his own contributions and started to receive it in February 2016.

According to the link in my previous

The married woman's rate was paid automatically to wives when their husbands reached state pension age after March 17, 2008.

Your mother received no pension at that stage?

dajsmith

No, she didn’t have a National insurance number at that stage because she’d never claimed any other benefits at that time either.

dajsmith

She has a National Insurance number now though. And she’s never received any state pension of any type.

molerat

Why did she not have an NI number ?

Was she born in UK ?

Was she receiving child benefit after April 1978 ?

She should be entitled to the 60% of the basic pension so £80.45.  Check here https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-through-partner

which gives the following (my bold)

You might be able to increase the amount of basic State Pension to £80.45 per week if:

• your spouse or civil partner has enough National Insurance contributions
• your spouse or civil partner was born on or after 6 April 1950 (this rule doesn’t apply to you if you’re a woman married to a man, or if you’re a woman married to a woman who legally changed their gender from male to female after the marriage began)

One of the following must also apply:

• you don’t qualify for any basic State Pension
• your basic State pension is less than £80.45 per week  

You’ll normally have got the increase when either you or your spouse or civil partner reached State Pension age, whichever was later. If you think you qualify but you’re not getting the increase, contact The Pension Service.

dajsmith

 She was born in Indonesia and moved to the UK in 1978. My father was born in the UK though. When it came to claiming child benefit, I think they used my father’s NI number. 

Thank you so much for confirming what I thought, they will be pursuing it with the DWP.