State Pension Estimate & Forecast... (the missing 1p!)

seacaitch

My NI record shows 35 Full Years (I reached the 35 year mark a few years back)...
- yet my State Pension "Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2024" shows a figure of "230.24 a week";
- while my "Forecast if you contribute another year before 5 April nnnn" shows a figure of "230.25 a week"
- and in bold I see this: "You need to continue to contribute National Insurance to reach your forecast"

This looks like some rounding error in the calculations, and my pension forecast has always shown this since I hit the 35 Full Years record of contribution. I wouldn't normally be concerned by this - clearly, 1p is not material - but I'm slightly concerned that HMRC's systems don't see me as being eligible for the full whack. It's not impossible to imagine some future change to SP qualifying rules whereby this tiny infinitesimal issue today somehow comes to disadvantage me more significantly. 

What's going on here?
Anyone else seen anything like this?
How can I get this "error" fixed? 

Thanks!

Tescodealqueen

seacaitch said:

My NI record shows 35 Full Years (I reached the 35 year mark a few years back)...
- yet my State Pension "Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2024" shows a figure of "230.24 a week";
- while my "Forecast if you contribute another year before 5 April nnnn" shows a figure of "230.25 a week"
- and in bold I see this: "You need to continue to contribute National Insurance to reach your forecast"

This looks like some rounding error in the calculations, and my pension forecast has always shown this since I hit the 35 Full Years record of contribution. I wouldn't normally be concerned by this - clearly, 1p is not material - but I'm slightly concerned that HMRC's systems don't see me as being eligible for the full whack. It's not impossible to imagine some future change to SP qualifying rules whereby this tiny infinitesimal issue today somehow comes to disadvantage me more significantly. 

What's going on here?
Anyone else seen anything like this?
How can I get this "error" fixed? 

Thanks!

35 years is only relevant to people who are fully in the new system, ie only contributions from April 2016. You are in a hybrid system where it’s a mix of old and new system so not as straightforward as you might think. May be the effects of being in a contacted out scheme at some point in your working life

seacaitch

Tescodealqueen said:

May be the effects of being in a contacted out scheme at some point in your working life

Thanks.

I was never contracted out.

And being a data person, the "1p" discrepancy looks very suspicious to me! Clearly, it's not impossible for a valid calculation to land me with an estimate that just happens to be 1p less than the full amount, but the probability seems low, and Occam's Razor suggests there's a more likely explanation.

Having never been contracted out, what else might explain this?
And is this sort of discrepancy commonplace?

Tescodealqueen

If you have never been contracted out then I would have expected to see an element of SERPs/state second pension. You need to look at the breakdown of your actual calculation which you should be able to see from your forecast rather than just the headline figure

seacaitch

On my State Pension Summary page (accessed via my Personal tax Account):
https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-your-state-pension/account

...I don't see any breakdown of calculations, just the Estimated and Forecast figures I described above (plus what the Forecast figure equates to per month & year shown at the top of the page). I assumed this is the same for everybody...

I don't see any further detail - is this available somewhere else?

molerat

With 35 years and never contracted out then you should have the full amount but I suspect there may have been a few instances where the 2016 starting amount came up with a strange number. If you want to post up the following details I can sense check what the forecast is showing.
Number of full NI years 15-16 and earlier
Number of full NI years 16-17 and later
Any COPE amount.  If you have "You've been in a contracted-out pension scheme" on your forecast then click 
here https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-your-state-pension/account/cope whilst logged into your tax account

I have put that last bit because the forecast will tell you if they have you showing as contracted out, maybe only for a couple of years, even if you don't remember

QrizB

seacaitch said:

My NI record shows 35 Full Years (I reached the 35 year mark a few years back)...

Edit: ignore me, molerat has said all this in a much more comprehensive fashion above.

What did your forecast say last year? Or the year before that?

How many full years do you have, and which ones are they? Are you still accruing years?

seacaitch

molerat said:

With 35 years and never contracted out then you should have the full amount but I suspect there may have been a few instances where the 2016 starting amount came up with a strange number. If you want to post up the following details I can sense check what the forecast is showing.

Current weekly £££.pp amount up to April 2024
Number of full NI years 15-16 and earlier
Number of full NI years 16-17 and later
Tax year you reach state retirement
Any COPE amount.  If you have "You've been in a contracted-out pension scheme" on your forecast then click 
here https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-your-state-pension/account/cope whilst logged into your tax account

I have put that last bit because the forecast will tell you if they have you showing as contracted out, maybe only for a couple of years, even if you don't remember

Details below:

Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2024:  £230.24 a week
Number of full NI years 15-16 and earlier:  30
Number of full NI years 16-17 and later:      5
Tax year you reach state retirement:  2035-36
Any COPE amount:  NO COPE amount (NO "You've been in a contracted-out pension scheme" text showing for me)

Thanks.

seacaitch

QrizB said:

seacaitch said:

My NI record shows 35 Full Years (I reached the 35 year mark a few years back)...

Edit: ignore me, molerat has said all this in a much more comprehensive fashion above.

What did your forecast say last year? Or the year before that?

How many full years do you have, and which ones are they? Are you still accruing years?

From the 1984/1985 Tax Year until the 2020/2021 Tax Year are all Full Years...
...except for the 1987/1988 and 1988/1989 Tax Years 

So 35 Full Years, and no longer accruing years.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

seacaitch said:

QrizB said:

seacaitch said:

My NI record shows 35 Full Years (I reached the 35 year mark a few years back)...

Edit: ignore me, molerat has said all this in a much more comprehensive fashion above.

What did your forecast say last year? Or the year before that?

How many full years do you have, and which ones are they? Are you still accruing years?

From the 1984/1985 Tax Year until the 2020/2021 Tax Year are all Full Years...
...except for the 1987/1988 and 1988/1989 Tax Years 

So 35 Full Years, and no longer accruing years.

Not sure why you keep referring to having 35 years when it has been explained those rules don't apply to you.

seacaitch

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Not sure why you keep referring to having 35 years when it has been explained those rules don't apply to you.

If you look carefully, you'll see that QrizB specifically asked me that question, to which I responded...

Feel free to add something more constructive.