Getting Full State Pension by buying years

Morpheus999

molerat said:

I am as confused as you on this.  

Buying a post 2016 year must add £5.82 to your 2016 starting amount so something they have done has reduced that starting amount.

FPC can only go by what is shown on their screen so as far as they are concerned it is correct.  HMRC are the ones that carry out the allocation of money to years so you need to find out exactly what they did in this last exercise.

Thanks Molerat.
The Pension Forecast lady I spoke to on Wednesday did indeed say that if I made year 16/17 into a full year, it would add £5.82pw. She also said that as I have more than 30 full years before 1016, then 2013/14 and 2014/15 do not contribute to my pension. I asked her to transfer the money, but she said I need to do that via HMRC. 
HMRC correctly transferred the monies paid into 13/14 and 14/15 and made 2016/7 a full year, but the amount received was not £5.82 but £1.65   I have checked the pension contributions from before the transfer and after the only difference is addition of year 2016/17 now showing 'full' and years 13/14 & 14/15 now showing not full. There are no other differences. 

Morpheus999

xylophone said:

See  the chart on p6 of https://www.dpf.org.uk/explorer/files/TOPPING-UP-YOUR-STATE-PENSION-GUIDE.pdf


Your "starting amount" at 6/4/16 (inception of NSP) was the higher of

Old Rules

NI Qualifying Years/30 (max)/£119.30 (Full Basic) + (Additional State Pension - Deduction for Contracting Out).


New Rules

{NIQY/35 (max)/£155.65 (Full NSP)} - Contracted Out Pension Equivalent.

How many QY did you have at 6/4/16?

Was your starting amount based on the old or new system?

If you had at least 30 QY at 6/4/16 and your SA was less than a full NSP and based on the Old System, then only QY from 6/4/16 onwards could improve your pension up to (but not in excess of) the full NSP.

Thanks Xylophone - I will work through the chart but for now:
QY up to 2016 is 34
QY after 2016 is 5
My Contracted Out deduction I believe is £22.42, but I am now unsure where I found this
Suspect my starting amount was based on old system as I only have 5 since 2016

xylophone

If I were you, I would ask FPC to give you the figure for your starting amount as calculated 6/4/16 and to confirm whether it was based on the old or new system.


 Based on 34 QY at 6/4/16, your starting amount was the higher of

£119.30 + (ASP - £22.42) Old System

£151.20 - £22.42 = £128.78  New System

 You had more than 30 QY at 6/4/16 so that if your  SA was based on the old rules calculation  and was £133.26 as Molerat deduced, then you needed five more QY between 6/4/16 and the last full tax year before you reached SPA to achieve a full NSP.