Parents Pension short

BillBillyBCFC

Hi 

My Mothers state pension is £849.08 4 weekly (£212.27/week)

I understand state pension is £221.20 / week.

We have checked her NI record and it says "Full year" next to every year between 75/76 and 09/10. (35 years exactly).

We phoned the Pension Service and asked and they said it "should be full state pension" but "Everyone seems to get a different amount", which didn't really help.

Does this make sense?

Her NI record says she could buy year 10/11 for £110.95. Which would take her up to 36 full years... would this boost her closer to the full state pension?

Because she is already claiming her pension there are no calculations (Forecast) to be seen on the government gateway, just a plain either "Full year" or "Year not full". No actual breakdown of how her pension £212.27 is calculated available to view.

Marcon

BillBillyBCFC said:

Hi 

My Mothers state pension is £849.08 4 weekly (£212.27/week)

I understand state pension is £221.20 / week.

We have checked her NI record and it says "Full year" next to every year between 75/76 and 09/10. (35 years exactly).

We phoned the Pension Service and asked and they said it "should be full state pension" but "Everyone seems to get a different amount", which didn't really help.

Does this make sense?

Her NI record says she could buy year 10/11 for £110.95. Which would take her up to 36 full years... would this boost her closer to the full state pension?

Because she is already claiming her pension there are no calculations (Forecast) to be seen on the government gateway, just a plain either "Full year" or "Year not full". No actual breakdown of how her pension £212.27 is calculated available to view.

Hard to think of a more unhelpful answer. Like everyone born last century, your mother is covered by 'transitional arrangements' and 35 years isn't likely to be her 'magic number', any more than 36 or any other number of years!

See https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/

BillBillyBCFC

Ok, Thank you @Marcon but is her pension likely to increase if she did buy the extra year? (Relatively cheap at £110.95)

or would she need to buy more years than that to get it to increase at all / or is the whole buying extra years thing just not an option for her?

molerat

What year did she reach state retirement - before 6 April 2016 ?

Or was she one of the "unfortunate" ones retiring early on post 2016 ?

QrizB

BillBillyBCFC said:

My Mothers state pension is £849.08 4 weekly (£212.27/week)
I understand state pension is £221.20 / week.
We have checked her NI record and it says "Full year" next to every year between 75/76 and 09/10. (35 years exactly).

I'm going to quote molerat from a different thread:

molerat said:

At April 2016 you were given the higher of

Old X(max 30) x £119.30/30 + S2P - exactly the same if you retired pre 2016

or

New X(max 35) x 155.65/35 - COPE

As you can see you are limited to the maximum number of payable years under each scheme so adding any more cannot improve the 2016 pension amount.

So, your mother's 35 pre-2016 years were either worth a full old state pension plus some S2P, or were worh a full new state pension less a contracted-out deduction. Either way, the total is now worth £212.27 a week.

BillBillyBCFC said:

Her NI record says she could buy year 10/11 for £110.95. Which would take her up to 36 full years... would this boost her closer to the full state pension?

No, buying a 36th pre-2016 year won't help since a max of 35 such years count in the calculation.

When did she reach state pension age? Is there a post-2016 year she can buy?

BillBillyBCFC

molerat said:

What year did she reach state retirement - before 6 April 2016 ?

Last year (2024)

QrizB said:

No, buying a 36th pre-2016 year won't help since a max of 35 such years count in the calculation.

When did she reach state pension age? Is there a post-2016 year she can buy?

She has entirely "Full years" listed from 1975/76 to 2009/10
 Then "year is not full" on all years since
2010 to 2011 says "Pay a voluntary contribution of £110.95 by 5 April 2025. This shortfall may increase after 5 April 2025."
2016 to 2017 says "Pay a voluntary contribution of £824.20 by 5 April 2025. This shortfall may increase after 5 April 2025."

Would paying the smaller make any difference or is it only post 2016 that matters? and how do you workout what the difference would be / how many years you Actually would need to get Full state pension? I'm assuming as he is less than £10 short she isn't far off?

QrizB

2010/11 will not help your mother's pension, although the Exchequer will be grateful for your donation.

Each post-2016 year adds 1/35th of the max new state pension, currently £6.32 a year, until you get to £221.20.

2016/17 will add £6.32 a week, taking her from £212.27 to £218.59.

A second post-2016 year will add the remaining £2.61.

BillBillyBCFC

QrizB said:

2010/11 will not help your mother's pension, although the Exchequer will be grateful for your donation.

Each post-2016 year adds 1/35th of the max new state pension, currently £6.32 a year, until you get to £221.20.

2016/17 will add £6.32 a week, taking her from £212.27 to £218.59.

A second post-2016 year will add the remaining £2.61.

Thank you.

Blue_Butterfly

As your mother reached SPA in 2024 you can only use 23/24 if her birthday is on or after 6th April. The tax year that you reach SPA in doesn't count towards State Pension even if you've paid a lot of NI.

Time4T_Accounts

QrizB said

I'm going to quote molerat from a different thread:

molerat said:

At April 2016 you were given the higher of

Old X(max 30) x £119.30/30 + S2P - exactly the same if you retired pre 2016

or

New X(max 35) x 155.65/35 - COPE

As you can see you are limited to the maximum number of payable years under each scheme so adding any more cannot improve the 2016 pension amount.

Thank you!  A year on from taking SP, I now understand why I don’t appear to have a COPE reduction: it’s because I fall into the Old calculation!  That now makes absolute sense!!