Underpaid pension?

trustymagnet

Any ideas please?  I retired in 2020 at the age of 66.  I have been aware for some time that I am not getting the full pension amount (currently about £90 every 4 weeks less than full rate).  I do not understand why.  I have 33 years full pension until 2008 and then I became self employed.  I have a whole year- 2008/09- with no credits at all and 37 weeks of credit of the 2009/10 year.  I then have another 9 years full years from 2010 to 2019.  I understand that the last year before retirement is not counted - is this correct? During the whole time I was self employed I had a certificate to protect my pension credits.  So I don't understand what has gone wrong because even if you discount those 2 years I still have 42 years of contributions. thanks

la531983

Have you logged in to see how many years you needed?

Ayr_Rage

Were you in any other pension scheme?

If that was a contracted-out scheme you may have needed several more years to get the full state pension.

I needed over 48 to get the full whack.

If you are thinking that 35 is the magic number, that only applies to those who started accumulating years from April 2016 (born this century).

molerat

With those numbers you were in a contracted out pension scheme at some time, so you should be receiving that pension, which means your starting amount was under the old rules and you needed post 2016 years to increase your pension but there were not enough available to reach the full amount.  You are not alone, there are many of us who were contracted out and reached retirement "too early" to get the full amount.

It is not the year before retirement that doesn't count but the tax year in which you reach retirement.  Your on line NI record will show if there are any fillable gaps which can now only be 19-20.  On a positive note those 2 empty / part filled years had no effect on your pension (as did none of your self employed years 2015-16 and earlier).

horatio1500

HI, I am in the same boat - been writing to the Pensions ppl for months with no response.  Despite being told verbally that I was on a contracted out scheme, I have no other pension, so did all my research and obtained confirmation that a couple of years, ages ago, I was in an employers scheme, which was cancelled and repaid into the 'system', as CEPS.  The House of Commons briefing paper, Number 2674, 26 September 2019, re "deductions for contracting out", I believe this states that payments/credits must be at the same or higher level to ensure that the State Pension is not affected.

xylophone

When did you reach State Pension Age?

Are you paid four weekly?  What is the amount received?

How many full years are shown on your NI record pre/post 6/4/16?

Marcon

horatio1500 said:

HI, I am in the same boat - been writing to the Pensions ppl for months with no response.  Despite being told verbally that I was on a contracted out scheme, I have no other pension, so did all my research and obtained confirmation that a couple of years, ages ago, I was in an employers scheme, which was cancelled and repaid into the 'system', as CEPS.  The House of Commons briefing paper, Number 2674, 26 September 2019, re "deductions for contracting out", I believe this states that payments/credits must be at the same or higher level to ensure that the State Pension is not affected.

Worth double checking that a CEP was actually paid over the by the scheme/getting a full NI history 'just in case' you have any other periods of contracting out. Have a look at my post of 15 May 2021 and read the thread (sorry it's so lengthy) to see why this might help:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6267734/is-there-a-really-detailed-online-method-to-check-nics/p1

It's remarkably easy to overlook/forget - for instance, a lot of people contracted out via a personal pension in the late 1980s/early 1990s. It was funded purely by part of their full-rate NI contribution being paid over to the personal pension, so they never actually made contributions themselves

horatio1500

Hi - I have found details that confirm the CEPS, what strikes me is reference to the contributions going back to the gov scheme to allow the "minimum" level of state pension, whereas, other gov documentation states that the levels should be the same as if SERPS had continued.  Is this a possible reason for DWP telling people they have had their state pension payments adjusted down?  Quote: ....you were contracted out....

Marcon

horatio1500 said:

Hi - I have found details that confirm the CEPS, what strikes me is reference to the contributions going back to the gov scheme to allow the "minimum" level of state pension, whereas, other gov documentation states that the levels should be the same as if SERPS had continued.  Is this a possible reason for DWP telling people they have had their state pension payments adjusted down?  Quote: ....you were contracted out....

If the correct CEP was paid by the scheme, you would have been reinstated into the state system as if that period of scheme membership (and contracting out during that time) hadn't happened. 

Try my suggestion above of requesting a full NI history.