State pension amount

Davecu

My wife and I both worked as teachers, and so paid a contracted out national insurance contribution. My wife gets a slightly smaller four weekly payment than I do. She has over 35 qualifying years. Some years were credits while she didn’t work due to looking after our young children. We don’t understand why her payment is lower than mine.

Marcon

When did you/your wife reach state pension age?

Davecu

Both of us reached state pension age in 2021

TadleyBaggie

The often touted 35 years to qualify for  full state pension only applies to people who were born this century, i.e. stared their working life after April 2016. Everyone else is on a transitional arrangement that was calculated in 2016, differences in payment amounts will vary due to individual circumstances.

What are the weekly payments for you and your wife?

DRS1

Presumably you both have letters saying how your state pension is calculated.  Have you compared the detail to see where the differences are?  

You were probably contracted out for longer than she was but that seems an unlikely explanation for you getting more state pension (more occupational pension maybe).

dunstonh

How many years is "over 35"?   The "over" bit doesn't help and that could mean 36 or it could mean 46 or whatever.
How many years did she need?
How many of those were contracted in and how many contracted out?

Now compare those answers to yours?

If could be something along the lines of she achieved 36 years but needed 41 years.  Whereas you needed 44 years and achieved 46 years.    There are a range of things but its usually easily answered once the data is known.

Triumph13

Plus did you both get the same number of post 2016 years?

Cobbler_tone

If I had a pound for every time I have read  "I have 35 years" followed by 'it's not 35 years', I probably could have retired by now.

I assume to know you have 35 full years means you are on the government gateway site, which should have the answers to your questions. I recommend it anyway, as tons of data and info. 
I like seeing how my NI contributions have increased every year since 1985 but finally plummeted last tax year with heavy SS. I look forward to it being zero!   

Isthisforreal99

Cobbler_tone said:

If I had a pound for every time I have read  "I have 35 years" followed by 'it's not 35 years', I probably could have retired by now.   

Ah, but Martin said......

Davecu

My wife has 38 full years and I have 41. I would have thought that anything over 35 years would be inconsequential. I had more contracted out years and more occupational pension but would presume (maybe wrongly) that the years when my wife had credits for not being in paid work but looking after our children would be full credits. Difficult to remember when she would have been contracted out because she had spells of temporary work to begin with as the children grew older. 

xylophone

Your "starting amounts"  for NSP were individually calculated on your personal  NI records.

On 6/4/16 the following calculations were done for each of you - the SA was the higher of the two.

 (A) Old Rules

NI Qualifying Years/30 (max) x Full Basic (£119.30) + (Additional State Pension - Deduction for Contracting Out)


(B) New Rules

{NI Qualifying Years/35 (max) x Full NSP (£155.65) } - Contracted Out Pension Equivalent.


If the SA were equal to the full NSP, while (if under SPA and earning the relevant amount) the individual would be required to continue to

pay NI, he/she could not improve it - the amount would increase each year under the pension indexing rules (currently triple lock).


If greater  than full NSP while (if under SPA and earning the relevant amount) the individual would be required to continue to

pay NI, he/she could not improve it - the amount equal to full NSP would increase each year under the pension indexing rules (currently

triple lock) and the balance ( the "protected payment") by CPI.


If the SA were less than the full NSP, there was the possibility  (depending on personal circumstances ) of improving the SA up to (but

not in excess of) a full NSP with contributions/credits to make qualifying years.