UK Government pension with less than 10 years credits: Possible or not?

davidrjones

As a non-UK national who has less than 10 years of NI contributions, can my friend obtain a reduced UK state pension in the future? Or does she need at least 10 years of contributions.  She is from Poland and she is working back there now. She can top up to get 10 years of NI contributions. But if she doesnt, will she get any UK state pension with less than 10 years of contributions?

tacpot12

They may be able to make voluntary contributions so that they have 10 years of NI. She may not be able to pay for an many as 10 years, so she should find out how many she can pay and then take into account how many more years she expects to work in the UK. If the total is less than 10 years, then there is no point paying any voluntary contributions as she won't be entitled to a pension. 

You/she can find out more about making voluntary contributions here: Voluntary National Insurance: Overview - GOV.UK  

QrizB

In principle, her years in Poland will count towards the "10 years" minimum qualifying period for a UK pension. They won't count towards the value of her pension, but they should count towards her qualifying for one.

So if, for example, she has 3 years in the UK pension and 12 years in Poland, 3+12 > 10 so she'll get a UK pension but it'll only be 3 years of value, so around £19 a week at current rates.

molerat

She should be able to aggregate her years in UK and Poland to bring her total number of years above 10 so she would receive whatever she had got in the UK.  If she was working in the UK immediately before leaving then she should be able to make class 2 contributions for the periods she is working in Poland for around £180 per year.  If those years are 2018-19 and earlier she needs to get a CF83 in sharpish - before next Saturday - as those years are cut off from then. Social Security abroad: NI38 - GOV.UK