The day after my state pension qualifying age, nothing heard from the DWP

Dazed_and_C0nfused

the 'New State Pension page of the UK Government website states that "a woman born on or after 6 April 1953", will "need 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension" of "£179.60 per week". However, they've awarded me £149.29 per week. 

You have taken that out of context.

You need to read the whole of that guide on gov.uk, in particular the section 

Valuing your National Insurance contributions and credits made before 6 April 2016

It is only those starting to pay NI from April 2016 that need 35 years, everyone else is under transitional rules and having 35 years is irrelevant. 

You may be able add to the £149.29/week but need to post the full details of your forecast, including which years you don't contribute enough.  The. We will be able to clarify what your options for increasing the £149 are.

Were you working in 2020:21?

p00hsticks

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

You may be able add to the £149.29/week but need to post the full details of your forecast, including which years you don't contribute enough. 

It sounds as if the OP may not have obtained a Pension Forecast in the past, and I'm not sure that they'll be able to get one easily online now that they are past State Pension Age.  I think we can say with reasonable confidence that, as the amount is under the NSP maximum, then if they have any incomplete post-2016 years then filling these would increase the amount (by around £5 a week for each year completed), but they may need to speak to the Pension Service to get the full forecast details now.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

I know your main issue has actually been contacting DWP but molerat did try and point you in the right direction re your expectation of your new State Pension entitlement earlier in this thread,.

rosalind110 said:

 Having worked full time for 42 years, although I retired on a workplace pension in 2016, I should probably qualify for the full state pension, but do not know, since the DWP has not confirmed, or advised me when my first payment is due.

You mean you did not have a forecast prior to you applying ? Retiring back in 2016 with a workplace pension means there is a strong possibility you may not be getting the full new pension. Do you have a Government Gateway personal tax account ?

rosalind110

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

the 'New State Pension page of the UK Government website states that "a woman born on or after 6 April 1953", will "need 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension" of "£179.60 per week". However, they've awarded me £149.29 per week. 

You have taken that out of context.

You need to read the whole of that guide on gov.uk, in particular the section 

Valuing your National Insurance contributions and credits made before 6 April 2016

It is only those starting to pay NI from April 2016 that need 35 years, everyone else is under transitional rules and having 35 years is irrelevant. 

You may be able add to the £149.29/week but need to post the full details of your forecast, including which years you don't contribute enough.  The. We will be able to clarify what your options for increasing the £149 are.

Were you working in 2020:21?

Thank you very much. I do now see where I have misunderstood what the website says and believe that the amount of £149 per week is probably correct.  

Dazed_and_C0nfused

rosalind110 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

the 'New State Pension page of the UK Government website states that "a woman born on or after 6 April 1953", will "need 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension" of "£179.60 per week". However, they've awarded me £149.29 per week. 

You have taken that out of context.

You need to read the whole of that guide on gov.uk, in particular the section 

Valuing your National Insurance contributions and credits made before 6 April 2016

It is only those starting to pay NI from April 2016 that need 35 years, everyone else is under transitional rules and having 35 years is irrelevant. 

You may be able add to the £149.29/week but need to post the full details of your forecast, including which years you don't contribute enough.  The. We will be able to clarify what your options for increasing the £149 are.

Were you working in 2020:21?

Thank you very much. I do now see where I have misunderstood what the website says and believe that the amount of £149 per week is probably correct.  

You may be correct however the fact that you said this suggests there is a possibility of increasing the £149 by another £25 to £174/week.

"45 years of full contributions
1 year to contribute before 5 April 2021
4 years when you did not contribute enough"

It all depends which 4 years are involved but you should be looking at a minimum of 1 extra year.

molerat

I am confused now re the verifying situation as rosalind110 already seems to have access to a Government Gateway account and can view their NI record so why are they needing to verify ?

Anyway, if you have access to your NI record you should be able to see which post 2016 years are available and the cost to purchase them.  Each one of those will add £5.13 to the pension amount.  Yes they can look expensive at around £800 each but as each year purchased will give you £266.83 per year before tax for the rest of your life they are excellent value.

rosalind110

I believe that, as you have suggested, the answer may be in the timing of the years when I did not pay enough.  I retired from my job on a work pension on New Year's Eve 2015 and thereafter have not paid National Insurance contributions.  Here's what it says about my NI contributions on my Personal Tax Account.

molerat

If you then click on View details it will show how much it will cost to fill those gaps.  One question we always ask - have you been looking after grandchildren whilst the parent has been at work ?  The correct answer can be worth a lot of money !

Dazed_and_C0nfused

It looks to me as though you can add £25.65/week to your £149.29 making a total weekly pension of £174.94.  

It will cost you c£4k to pay Class 3 National Insurance for those years but it is an inflation proofed government backed pension so as secure as they come.

If we assume you will owe 20% tax on the extra £25.65 that still leaves with £20.52/week extra in your pocket.

After less than 4 years you will have got your £4k back and it's all profit from then onwards.  I think life expectancy for a 66 year old female is 87 so after 21 years you would have received £22.4k, after tax and before any inflation increases 

I think you need to contact the Future Pension Centre part of DWP as soon as possible as they will be able to give a definitive answer as to your options.

https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre

rosalind110

molerat said:

If you then click on View details it will show how much it will cost to fill those gaps.  One question we always ask - have you been looking after grandchildren whilst the parent has been at work ?  The correct answer can be worth a lot of money !

Sadly, I don't yet have any grandchildren.