Can I rely on the State Pension Forecast?

MonkeyMonkTed

HMRC's State Pension Forecast for me has for several years been saying that I am on track for the full state pension and my NI Record shows 37 "Full Year" years. However, how far can I rely on HMRC's Forecast... Some early years when I was at school are classed as "Full year" but when I look at the details, it says "You have contributions from Paid employment of £25.66 and 50 weeks of NI credits". Are these legitimate Full Years? Should I consider making Voluntary Contributions to increase my number of years? Many thanks for any advice!

eskbanker

There won't be any revision of full years, so if that's how they're stated now then that's what they'll stay.

If your pension forecast definitely says that you can't improve it any more then yes, you can rely on that....

MonkeyMonkTed

Great, thanks.
Also, I'm not sure if I was ever "contracted out" but I think I had a company pension at one point for a couple of years so would that affect any "Full years", even though all those years say things like "You have contributions from paid employment..."

I should have paid more attention to this complicated, mysterious stuff but always ignored it!

molerat

The top line big green box showing the full pension can be pretty meaningless on its own in as much as it shows what you could achieve by the time you reach retirement, the important bits are what is in the text and figures below that. If HMRC had a record of you contracting out it would state that on your forecast.  If it does then any contracting out deduction is already accounted for in the forecast amount, it was only ever applied to your 2016 starting amount.  The only cause for concern would be if you knew you were contacted out and your forecast did not mention it, a very rare occurrence but one case seen here recently.

p00hsticks

For state pension purposes, a 'full year' is a 'full year' regardless of whether you were contracted in or out or a mixture of the two during that year . Allowances for contracting out were made separately when your 'starting amount' was calculated in 2016 with the introduction of the new State Pension. 

The same applies to NI credits - they count the same as if they were bought. Up until 2010, everyone was creditted with the weeks in the years they turned 16, 17 and 18, which explains your early record. 

Sarahspangles

Ideally your State Pension summary says “ You cannot improve your forecast any more.” because you already have enough years. Otherwise, the number you require seems to be information you can rely on - people rarely report issues where there have been changes close to retirement. The only issue seems to be one where self employed people wait to have their voluntary payments confirmed.

I have 37 full years and qualified for full State Pension after 36.

MonkeyMonkTed

Many thanks for the helpful and reassuring comments. My statement says "You cannot improve your forecast any more", so it looks like I'll be OK.

How I'm going to cope with the shock of becoming a Pensioner is a whole other matter! :-)

jouef

My online forecast said “You cannot improve your forecast any more” but I rang Future Pensions. They got me an extra grand a year.

Edit: they told me to ring HMRC and get prices and reference numbers for two ‘Not full - we are checking …‘ years and one ‘Not full - pay £824.40 …’ year. They said topping up my other two ‘Not full’ years would make no difference. HMRC referred two years I had paid, but not been credited with, Voluntary Class 2 NI back to the self-employment team for inclusion, and gave me payment details for the other at Class 3. I went back to Future Pensions who priced up my increase, and I paid the missing year. Three phone calls, under two hours total on hold, really helpful and patient staff.

MonkeyMonkTed

Thanks Jouef. I'm currently down for getting the full state pension of £221, so I wouldn't think I can increase that....??

jouef

MonkeyMonkTed said:

Thanks Jouef. I'm currently down for getting the full state pension of £221, so I wouldn't think I can increase that....??

Sounds to me like you're right, but don't take my word for it if you can check elsewhere. They got me up to £220.31 by my calculations.