JSA and what is a qualifying year for state pension

singhini

I have been made redundant and so have "signed-on" 

During my appointment at the Job Centre today i mentioned that i only need one more year of NI contributions to receive a full state pension.

I went on to say that i was working in April, May, June, July this year and so i only need a further 8 months worth of NI to qualify for that state pension i.e. 12 month i.e. 52 weeks 

My Job Coach said i was wrong.......... she said a person only needs 26 weeks of NI for "a qualifying year"

I've spent the last few hours on the internet trying to find out if this is correct and i can't find anything (i keep finding info that states 10 years are the minimum needed to get some sort of state pension). But that's not my question (perhaps i'm typing the wrong info into google). 

Does anymore know what the number of weeks a person needs to get a qualifying year for state pension?

kaMelo

The number of weeks don'tI matter, it's what you earn that matters. If you have a gross income of £6396 or more in a financial year then you will have a qualifying full year towards your state pension. If your earnings this financial year exceed £6396 then you already have a full year.

On a side note, have you read your pension forecast and this is where it states you only need one more year or are you just assuming you need 35 years

tacpot12

This link may help: National Insurance and the state pension | Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (litrg.org.uk)

chrisbur

kaMelo said:

The number of weeks don'tI matter, it's what you earn that matters. If you have a gross income of £6396 or more in a financial year then you will have a qualifying full year towards your state pension. If your earnings this financial year exceed £6396 then you already have a full year.

Just a small caveat to the above.  If any of the weeks earnings are below £123 (or monthly equivalent) then those earnings are not counted. Same for earnings over the UEL £967 weekly.

frayedknot

You get an NI credit if you're signing on anyway.

singhini

@kaMelo
@tacpot12
@chrisbur
Thankyou guys, your help is much appreciated

@kaMelo - Yes ive looked at my pension forecast (i personally need 33 years and have 32 currently)

@frayedknot - i know i get NI credits when signing-on (that was not my question). My question was: "Does anymore know what the number of weeks a person needs to get a qualifying year for state pension"?
Nonetheless, i thankyou for taking the time to read my post.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

singhini said:

@kaMelo
@tacpot12
@chrisbur
Thankyou guys, your help is much appreciated

@kaMelo - Yes ive looked at my pension forecast (i personally need 33 years and have 32 currently)

@frayedknot - i know i get NI credits when signing-on (that was not my question). My question was: "Does anymore know what the number of weeks a person needs to get a qualifying year for state pension"? :astonished:
Nonetheless, i thankyou for taking the time to read my post.

I think it's 7. 

Providing you earn £967 in each of those 7 weeks.

singhini

@tacpot12 - That link was very good. i found the following wording on their website:

A qualifying year is generally a tax year in which an individual has paid (or is treated as having paid) NIC or was credited with NIC on earnings of at least 52 times the lower earnings limit (LEL).

The weekly LEL for the 2024/25 tax year is £123. This means you need to have earned at least £6,396 (for 2024/25), but you need to exclude any week where you earned less than £123.

This means you could satisfy a qualifying year by earning £300 for 25 weeks in the tax year and only earning £100 in total for the other 27 weeks of the year; but you would not satisfy the condition if you earned £300 for 10 weeks and then £100 for the other 42 weeks of the year.

Here is the specific link i took the above wording from incase other wish to read it (wording can be found under the section "Qualifying Year")
National Insurance and the state pension | Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (litrg.org.uk)

chrisbur

singhini said:

@tacpot12 - That link was very good. i found the following wording on their website:

A qualifying year is generally a tax year in which an individual has paid (or is treated as having paid) NIC or was credited with NIC on earnings of at least 52 times the lower earnings limit (LEL).

The weekly LEL for the 2024/25 tax year is £123. This means you need to have earned at least £6,396 (for 2024/25), but you need to exclude any week where you earned less than £123.

This means you could satisfy a qualifying year by earning £300 for 25 weeks in the tax year and only earning £100 in total for the other 27 weeks of the year; but you would not satisfy the condition if you earned £300 for 10 weeks and then £100 for the other 42 weeks of the year.

Here is the specific link i took the above wording from incase other wish to read it (wording can be found under the section "Qualifying Year")
National Insurance and the state pension | Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (litrg.org.uk)

Re section in bold....
You also have to exclude any earnings that fall above the upper earnings limit.