Deferred State Pension

1957DfurdPensionist

Hi @Silvertabby - believe it or not, I never received an invite to start my pension ahead of becoming 66.  That must've got lost in the post - I did change addresses a couple of times quickly so that could be the reason.  So I kind of defaulted into deferral.  I was loosely aware of the 5.8% per year deferral enhancement but had not made any calculation or break even comparison.  However, when I started talking with DWP I was pleasantly surprised to learn that despite deferring the start by perhaps a year, I would (turns out I could if I chose) receive that year back as a retrospective lump sum payment.  For a while I was pleasantly surprised about it  because I'd been left with the possibly over-optimistic impression that the 5.8% enhancement would still apply once the pension came into regular payment a year late!

It may sound like I am a bit thick, but it was only relatively recently after I had been deferring for almost 1½ years that a further conversation with another agent got me clued into the idea of a part year retropayment optimised to give an exact multiple of 9 weeks at the 2023 end before the retroperiod starts, then no enhancement for the retroperiod itself, then the balance of the deferral starts earning the enhancement again post the telephone claim date.   Hence my comment in the first post that the retropaid lump sum would seem to be an interest-free loan to the government.  That is a little bit of a 'downer' as much as it would have been an 'upper' if the period of retropayment did actually count as deferred weeks!  I am still not sure because I have no confirmed figures and I don't know where to look to read exactly how the lump sum option varies the overall enhancement.

It seems that the MSE Forum Team haven't had time to repost the extra info I tried to publish last night, so I will try to do it again in my next post in case anyone is interested in what I was informed online to expect in the second half of 2016.

1957DfurdPensionist

So - here's the gist of what I tried topost last night:
In the second half of 2016 a webpage I downloaded labelled 'Summary Check your State Pension' I was informed that based on my NI contributions up to April 2015 my then entitlement was £121.30pw, and if I continued to contribute until April 2023, then my forecast at SPa 66 late in 2023 would be £154.20.  On the same day in 2016 I downloaded another page which said my COPE estimate was £84.08.

Me being a simple soul, but still mathematically minded, I've checked back the Triple Lock increases since second half of 2016.  Cumulatively they add up to +30.95%.  So, theoretically, since I have ensured that all years back to 2016 are indeed "full" NI contributed, at my SPa in second half of 2023, I hope I am right to assess that I would have started to receive £154.20pw + 30.95% = £201.92pw?

And since 2023 we have become aware of two more triple lock numbers i.e. +8.5% and + 4.1% so if it is April 2025 before I start receiving my regular weekly pension, by then I think I can expect around £228pw even before the deferral enhancement.  I just have to keep my fingers crossed that the £199 which a number of DWP telephone agents have read off their screens for my case is just the nonsense now that I have told them it must be.  Their only retort right up to and including last week:  "It's just an estimate" ... d'oh!  I find it so annoying that they are not allowed to engage in dialogue as I am trying to do here in the forum, which is trying only to get agreement to what is solely past DWP fact i.e. the DWP published numbers that lead to the £228pw that would have been the right number at SPa.  If only they could agree that and dump their "£199pw estimate" for good, and then just confirm the last bit, deferral calculation round a lump sum, then 1957DfurdPensionist would be a happy bunny!

Silvertabby

You won't have been sent an invite to claim your State pension - the onus is 100% on you to claim it.  If you don't claim it, then DWP will just assume that you either want to defer or don't want it at all.  

1957DfurdPensionist

Oh ... I just thought I read others' posts about an invite ahead of reaching SPa.  Interesting - of little or no consequence to me except if such a thing existed, I imagine it would need to contain some up to date personalised numbers, something I am still waiting for despite having put in my claim in October :-)

eastcorkram

Silvertabby said:

You won't have been sent an invite to claim your State pension - the onus is 100% on you to claim it.  If you don't claim it, then DWP will just assume that you either want to defer or don't want it at all.  

I too, was under the impression that an invitation to claim letter was sent out, about three or four months before it was due to go into payment. My sister definitely received this. I should receive the letter, if it's actually still a thing, this year. 

p00hsticks

Silvertabby said:

You won't have been sent an invite to claim your State pension - the onus is 100% on you to claim it.  If you don't claim it, then DWP will just assume that you either want to defer or don't want it at all.  

@Silvertabby I think this is a very rare case where you are wrong - you should get a letter around four months before you reach SPA inviting you to claim it. As given here, the letter will include a personal 'invitation code' that then allows you to apply for it online. 
Get your State Pension - GOV.UK

If you don't respond to the letter then they'll assume you want to defer it and it will then be up to you to initiate a claim at a later date  

Silvertabby

p00hsticks said:

Silvertabby said:

You won't have been sent an invite to claim your State pension - the onus is 100% on you to claim it.  If you don't claim it, then DWP will just assume that you either want to defer or don't want it at all.  

@Silvertabby I think this is a very rare case where you are wrong - you should get a letter around four months before you reach SPA inviting you to claim it. As given here, the letter will include a personal 'invitation code' that then allows you to apply for it online. 
Get your State Pension - GOV.UK

If you don't respond to the letter then they'll assume you want to defer it and it will then be up to you to initiate a claim at a later date  

Thanks.  Happy to stand corrected!

I may have jumped the gun by applying for mine on line, so I didn't get an invitation letter.

Blue_Butterfly

I reached SPA in 2023 and got a letter 4 months before I reached 66, and everything went smoothly. I helped my friend change her address on the Government Gateway 5 months before her SPA, and the invite letter arrived 1 month later to the new address. She also paid 2 years voluntary NI and initially only 1 year and 50 weeks were credited, so mistakes are sometimes made. A phone call to HMRC resolved it easily where they could see the correct payment. I think the letters are probably automated, and the top ups manually done.

1957DfurdPensionist

Could those of you who have in fact seen invitation letters please confirm whether or not they contain personalised forecast figures for a normal SPa start date?  I can hardly believe they would not ... surely by now (so far beyond the introduction of nSP, the abolition of contracting out, and the necessary double-checking (between HMRC and surviving private pension schemes) of contracted out GMP's and thus individual COPE numbers, such things must be entirely computerised and dare we say, accurate?  Might such letters also reconfirm the full NI years/remaining gap years, and even remind us punters of our individual COPE figures and effect? Or do they perhaps not invite any appeal, just "Here's the weekly amount - do you want to start it now ?".

pinnks

The letter is simply an invitation to claim.  Why would it contain more when you can get an up to date pension forecast containing all of that information whenever you want.  In my view adding more information to the invitation would be pointless and potentially confuse people.