Boosting state pension by buying National insurance credits

fearbeag

My wife was born after April 1953 and so qualifies for buying some extra years to boost her pension as I believe she has 29 qualifying years and the full pension since 2016 requires 35 years. My question is this.....If we purchase more years at £824.00 in order to boost her pension by £275.00 per year, does the increase in pension start from now or can we backdate the increases to when she started to take her pension when she was 64 years and 11 months in June 2015. If that is the case, apart from having to pay Tax at  on the lump sum it would be a great deal especially as hundreds of thousands  of women of similar age got short changed with the rapid increase in pension age qualification which occurred around that time   

molerat

You are obviously confused over dates as if she was born after April 1953 she would not have reached SPA in 2015.  There is also no way she reached SPA in June of any year with a SPA  below 66. I will take a stab at Nov/Dec 53 with an SPA of Nov 2018 for 64y11m. Or Jul/Aug 53 with an SPA of Jul 2017 at 63y11m.

If paying post retirement the pension will be increased from the date the payments are received.

35 years is of no relevance with a pre 2016 NI history. 

How much is she currently receiving ?

How many Pre and post years does she have and where are the gaps ?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

I believe she has 29 qualifying years and the full pension since 2016 requires 35 years

You've misunderstood the new State Pension.

35 years only applies to those starting to pay NI from 2016.

fearbeag

molerat said:

You are obviously confused over dates as if she was born after April 1953 she would not have reached SPA in 2015.  There is also no way she reached SPA in June of any year with a SPA  below 66. I will take a stab at Nov/Dec 53 with an SPA of Nov 2018 for 64y11m. Or Jul/Aug 53 with an SPA of Jul 2017 at 63y11m.

If paying post retirement the pension will be increased from the date the payments are received.

35 years is of no relevance with a pre 2016 NI history. 

How much is she currently receiving ?

How many Pre and post years does she have and where are the gaps ?

Apologies Molerat, there was indeed a typo in my original post. She reached state pension age in June 2017 and not June 2015. However, everything else is correct. She was born in July 1953 and her current weekly pension is £151.44. All her years are "pre" as she was very ill for the two years prior to reaching SPA in 2017 and was unable to work during that period. She has worked for much of her life but of course there were years when our three children were small which prevented working.We don't know the specific gap years are but as per martin's info, we will now try to find out by firstly opening a  Government Gateway account and try to access the information that way. Thanks for your feedback and any further info / guidance would be very much appreciated. 

molerat

So she needs 6-7 years to bring her up to the full amount.  I assume she received the child benefit in her name and the corresponding NI credits ?

Yes you need to get the NI record and that will show which years are available to top up but I believe that as she reached SPA post 2016 all years back to 2006-07 can be filled before April 2023.

Does she have a contracted out pension ?  Her current amount points to that possibility as it seems to be based on "old rules" which could be problematic for topping up any pre 2016 years and it may be her only available option will be 2016-17 alone, something that can be confirmed with the FPC.  There are many that reached SPA just after he introduction of the new scheme who were not able to reach that full amount, me being one of them.

fearbeag

molerat said:

So she needs 6-7 years to bring her up to the full amount.  I assume she received the child benefit in her name and the corresponding NI credits ?

Yes you need to get the NI record and that will show which years are available to top up but I believe that as she reached SPA post 2016 all years back to 2006-07 can be filled before April 2023.

Does she have a contracted out pension ?  Her current amount points to that possibility as it seems to be based on "old rules" which could be problematic for topping up any pre 2016 years and it may be her only available option will be 2016-17 alone, something that can be confirmed with the FPC.  There are many that reached SPA just after he introduction of the new scheme who were not able to reach that full amount, me being one of them.

Thanks Molerat. She has three small private pensions which only amount to C £150.00 per month. We've been in touch with the pension service and requested a breakdown of NI contributions in order to see where the gaps are. We should have that within the next couple of weeks. Personally I feel that those reaching pension age shortly after the introduction of the new scheme were treated unfairly especially as it coincided with the rapid increase in state pension age for women. I'll be happy to let you know who we get on. Best regards.