State pension

Pagan68

I am I right in understanding that if you have worked enough years to qualify for full state pension that is all you will receive, but if you do not qualify for full state pension, it is topped up with pension credit, thereby getting access to more benefits and the current state handouts which those on the basic state pension (and not able to get pension credit) are not able to get.

Pollycat

That's not how pension credit works.

You only qualify for pension credit if your income is below a certain amount - not because you don't qualify for the full state pension.

Read more here:
Pension Credit: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Pension Credit gives you extra money to help with your living costs if you’re over State Pension age and on a low income. Pension Credit can also help with housing costs such as ground rent or service charges.

comeandgo

You are right in a roundabout way.  The new state  pension rate takes you out of the pension credit allowance but if your state pension is low and you have no other income you may qualify for pension credit which can be quite fruitful.  I know my mother who had pension credit and housing paid was better off than her friends who did not qualify for pension credit.

Pollycat

The link I gave above says:

Pension Credit tops up:

• your weekly income to £182.60 if you’re single

Have you requested a state pension forecast?

Don't automatically assume that you'll get £185.15 per week state pension.
It's far more complicated than that.

calcotti

comeandgo said:

You are right in a roundabout way.  The new state  pension rate takes you out of the pension credit allowance but if your state pension is low and you have no other income you may qualify for pension credit which can be quite fruitful.  I know my mother who had pension credit and housing paid was better off than her friends who did not qualify for pension credit.

One of the intentions behind the rate of the New State Pension is to reduce means testing needs for Pension Credit.
However for those who only have the NSP (if they get the full amount), even though they will not get Pension Credit, if they have no other income they will still get Housing Benefit, if renting, and Council Tax Reduction to help pay their Council Tax.
Pension Credit entitlement itself may be higher depending on circumstances, for example if they have a disability.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

There was a post the other day, on the Pensions board I think, which raised an interesting question in my mind.

It was from someone expecting to get the final two years needed for full nSP from NI credits resulting from a UC claim.

But what if they weren't a UC claimant or able to get say Childcare credits, and needed to make voluntary contributions to reach the standard new nSP of £185.15.

If they chose not to part with say £1600 to buy those two years, or maybe bought one but not the other and had nSP of £180.00 would that open a host of other "benefits" upto them from State Pension age?

MallyGirl

@Dazed_and_C0nfused I would raise this as a separate query as it will be lost on the end of this one. It is an interesting point.
I don't have the power to split the thread for you at the moment.

Silvertabby

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

There was a post the other day, on the Pensions board I think, which raised an interesting question in my mind.

It was from someone expecting to get the final two years needed for full nSP from NI credits resulting from a UC claim.

But what if they weren't a UC claimant or able to get say Childcare credits, and needed to make voluntary contributions to reach the standard new nSP of £185.15.

If they chose not to part with say £1600 to buy those two years, or maybe bought one but not the other and had nSP of £180.00 would that open a host of other "benefits" upto them from State Pension age?

Good point - and I think you are right.

There are a lot of threads on these boards about buying voluntary Class 3 NI, but these all seem to be from people who initially didn't qualify for the full single tier pension because we had been contracted out (of SERPS/SP2) and so had other pensions on top of the State pension.

QrizB

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

There was a post the other day, on the Pensions board I think, which raised an interesting question in my mind.
It was from someone expecting to get the final two years needed for full nSP from NI credits resulting from a UC claim.
But what if they weren't a UC claimant or able to get say Childcare credits, and needed to make voluntary contributions to reach the standard new nSP of £185.15.
If they chose not to part with say £1600 to buy those two years, or maybe bought one but not the other and had nSP of £180.00 would that open a host of other "benefits" upto them from State Pension age?

In the case of that particular poster, IIRC they had a £60pw occupational pension so were already above the individual Pension Credit threshold.

Your point is still valid for the more general case.

JJAGSP

MSE State Pension Top Up Calculator.  It doesn't seem to matter what shortfall in year you put in, the answer is always 3 years break even.  This is absolute rubbish!  My current forecast is £150 per week, that's a reduction from the max of £185.  My top up is £9066 in order to get the MAX £185 per week, currently.  So, divide 9066 by 35 and you get 259 months, or more than 21 years to get my money back!!!

tr7phil

JJAGSP said:

MSE State Pension Top Up Calculator.  It doesn't seem to matter what shortfall in year you put in, the answer is always 3 years break even.  This is absolute rubbish!  My current forecast is £150 per week, that's a reduction from the max of £185.  My top up is £9066 in order to get the MAX £185 per week, currently.  So, divide 9066 by 35 and you get 259 months, or more than 21 years to get my money back!!!

259 weeks, or about 5 years not making any allowance for increases.