State Pension Entitlement

Rigsby2016

Hi, I have just received my state pension letter , and it's below the forecast , which was the full state pension . I have 43 years of full NI contributions. I did retire 4 years ago after taking earlier retirement. 
My  understanding is you need 35 full years of full qualifying contributions , however i am being told its actually 35 years up until the day you qualify and reach the state pension age .

Is this correct ?  I have contacted the DWP but they have misplaced placed my original query , I will have to wait another 6 weeks for  answer. Advice welcome.

eskbanker

When did you obtain your forecast and do you still have a copy?

molerat

Both your understandings and what you are being told are incorrect.  35 years is only applicable to those starting out their NI history from 2016, basically those born this century.  Anyone else is on a hybrid scheme needing as many as it takes, anecdotally somewhere between 28 and 50 years.  As you have 43 years and have not reached the full amount means that you were contracted out giving a lower 2016 starting amount and would need some post 2016 years to reach the full amount.  That number of additional years needed has always been shown on your forecast, the top line big green box giving the amount you could be expected to achieve by the time you reach retirement providing you do what it stated was needed in the texts below it.

You could though be one of the very rare cases where the contracted out history was incorrectly recorded which would have meant the forecast was incorrect.

GrubbyGirl_2

I am due to retire in January.  I was contracted out as an NHS employee so I needed 49 years to get a full state pension

Tescodealqueen

If you obtained the forecast before 2016 it would have been produced under the rules at that time where you only needed 30 years to qualify for a full pension . I qualified for full pension when I retired early ,  after the rules changed in 2016 I needed to pay 8 years contributions to qualify for full pension as I had been contracted out all my working life and needed 48 years

Ayr_Rage

I was born in Feb 1959, in company pension schemes for all bar 3 years of my working life, I needed just over 48 years to get the full state pension.

QrizB

Rigsby2016 said:

Is this correct ?  I have contacted the DWP but they have misplaced placed my original query , I will have to wait another 6 weeks for  answer. Advice welcome.

Can you still get a state pension forecast from here:

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

If you can, what does it say? Can you share the details here?

jem16

Rigsby2016 said:

Hi, I have just received my state pension letter , and it's below the forecast , which was the full state pension . I have 43 years of full NI contributions. I did retire 4 years ago after taking earlier retirement. 

What does your award letter say that you will get every four weeks? The full state pension every four weeks is £921.

The reason I ask is that I came across someone recently who thought she was getting £80 less than her forecast which she said told her it was the full amount. Turns out she was looking at the notional monthly figure( which doesn’t actually exist as there’s no monthly payment option)and comparing it with the four weekly figure on her letter.

p00hsticks

jem16 said:

Rigsby2016 said:

Hi, I have just received my state pension letter , and it's below the forecast , which was the full state pension . I have 43 years of full NI contributions. I did retire 4 years ago after taking earlier retirement. 

What does your award letter say that you will get every four weeks? The full state pension every four weeks is £921.

The reason I ask is that I came across someone recently who thought she was getting £80 less than her forecast which she said told her it was the full amount. Turns out she was looking at the notional monthly figure( which doesn’t actually exist as there’s no monthly payment option)and comparing it with the four weekly figure on her letter.

The other possible explanation is that the OPs forecast had a headline amount of the maximum, but below that it  showed a lesser amount accumulated as at the time of the forecast ,and a statement to say that in order to get the headline amount they would need to contribute another x number of years before the year they reached SPA.

jem16

p00hsticks said:

jem16 said:

Rigsby2016 said:

Hi, I have just received my state pension letter , and it's below the forecast , which was the full state pension . I have 43 years of full NI contributions. I did retire 4 years ago after taking earlier retirement. 

What does your award letter say that you will get every four weeks? The full state pension every four weeks is £921.

The reason I ask is that I came across someone recently who thought she was getting £80 less than her forecast which she said told her it was the full amount. Turns out she was looking at the notional monthly figure( which doesn’t actually exist as there’s no monthly payment option)and comparing it with the four weekly figure on her letter.

The other possible explanation is that the OPs forecast had a headline amount of the maximum, but below that it  showed a lesser amount accumulated as at the time of the forecast ,and a statement to say that in order to get the headline amount they would need to contribute another x number of years before the year they reached SPA.

Yes and possibly the most likely reason. I spent a long time discussing that with the person involved until she showed her actual forecast and we discovered the misunderstanding.