State Pension and COPE

pete_r

My State Pension forecast show I have one more year of NI to pay in and in 2027 I will receive the Full SP of £221. I count that I will have only paid in 33 full years. I have a few "Not Full Years", when I worked in Europe, where I have paid something during my time back in the UK. Do those get added together to make a Full Year?

It then states that I contracted out under SERPS and will get £30 a week of COPE. I already get paid an old work pension. Will that COPE be added to that when I reach State retirement age?

When I worked in Greece, before Brexit, I paid into their state system for 4 summers and after the first year was able to claim unemployment benefit during the winter time. If I got hold of the correct documentation would I be able to use that to top up my missing years?

Thanks in advance. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

pete_r said:

My State Pension forecast show I have one more year of NI to pay in and in 2027 I will receive the Full SP of £221. I count that I will have only paid in 33 full years. I have a few "Not Full Years", when I worked in Europe, where I have paid something during my time back in the UK. Do those get added together to make a Full Year?

It then states that I contracted out under SERPS and will get £30 a week of COPE. I already get paid an old work pension. Will that COPE be added to that when I reach State retirement age?

When I worked in Greece, before Brexit, I paid into their state system for 4 summers and after the first year was able to claim unemployment benefit during the winter time. If I got hold of the correct documentation would I be able to use that to top up my missing years?

Thanks in advance. 

I suspect you are under the mistaken impression that you need 35 years.  You don't, those rules only apply to those starting to build up an NI record from 2016.

Separate years are not added together to make a full year.

But irrespective of that you should get what your forecast shows, if that is one extra year makes you hit £221.20 then no reason to think that is wrong.  The range of years for those, like you, who are under transitional rules is sub 30 to over 50.

Forget COPE, it was a factor in determining your starting/foundation amount for the new State Pension but in reality it isn't an amount you will ever be paid by anyone.  In theory your old work pension will be paying more than this but you cannot correlate the two.

Marcon

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6445947/good-and-short-explanation-of-cope#latest

pinnks

Your Greek periods will have no impact whatsoever on your UK pension because you already have sufficient UK years to receive one. 

However, your UK years may enable you to receive a small Greek pension if your Greek periods qualify under their rules, i.e. they don't have the concept of qualifying years are we do but count every period of days/weeks/months, or whatever their rules require.

Your UK weeks, so far as they do not overlap with Greek periods, will be added to your Greek periods and if that gets you past any minimum time requirements, then you would receive a small Greek pension.

You would claim that pension by contacting DWP International Pensions Centre and saying you want to claim your Greek pension.