State Pension - amount

MouldyOldDough

I still don't know whether I will receive a Full SP in 4 years (I am 63 next birthday)

With 33 years Contracted out credits- with another 7 years ESA paid class 1 credits by 2030 !!

According to Chat GPT

"Maximum new State Pension

• 2026/27 maximum: £230.30 per week
• For someone who was contracted out for all their working life, the government applies a “contracted-out deduction” (from SERPS/S2P).
• This means the maximum you can get from the State Pension is lower than £230/week, even with 35 qualifying years."

If this is the case - I believe that my adding any more credits is pointless now !

molerat

Your forecast clearly states exactly how much you will receive and what, if anything, you need to do further. Chat GPT does not know your personal circumstances so it cannot tell what YOU will receive and on such a complex subject usually spouts total rubbish with no context. What does your forecast state ? (and we have done this dance before !) Being contracted out deducts nothing from your pension, it only affects your 2016 starting amount.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6449488/ni-contributions

Brie

Have you looked at your actual state pension forecast? That will give you much better info than ChatGPT.

There's a link in my signature below to direct you where to find it.

And once you get in to the system you should find something that has a bit like this on it (mine from a couple of years back so may have changed slightly.) The important thing to look for is the final line where it says for me "you cannot improve your forecast". Which meant that at that point and even though I was still paying NI my SP would not increase other than by the annual inflation increases. No amount of me throwing money at it would make it better.

And fyi - I was contracted out for a period of time and had about 30 years of contributions and I got the maximum.

MouldyOldDough

This does say "not guaranteed….."

And how can I contribute another 5 years before 5 April 2030 ? - there are only 4 years left

NoMore

This financial year won't have been added yet so you have

25/26

26/27

27/28

28/29

29/30

That's five years

GrumpyDil

The first line says amount based on your record to 5th April 2025 and the second says what you will get if you contribute up to 5th April 2030 so five more years from the 2025 figure.

A quick check says each year gets you an additional £6.58 per week so four years will get you to £225.56 and the final year gets you to the max of £230.25.

kermchem

The estimate that you can see does not include the current tax year 2025/6, and you can also add 2026/7, 2027/8, 2028/9 and 2029/30.

molerat

This does say "not guaranteed….."

No it doesn't, it states "is not a guarantee and is based on the current law", they will not commit to something that may (highly unlikely with less than 10 year's notice) change in law. Within the parameters of current law and all your recorded data being correct then that forecast is what you will get. And, if you have been scared by the recent news reports, there is nothing from your previous posts to suggest any data held is incorrect.

Nothing then has changed since your 2023 post. You then needed another 7 years at April 2023, now 2 years later you need 5 years at April 2025.

Aretnap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81888453#Comment_81888453

The "not a guarantee" line is in there because some people (eg WASPI types) seen to think that the state pension is some sort of cast iron contract with the government, which means they must pay you exactly what you thought you were being promised when you first started work many decades ago.* In fact it's a welfare benefit and like any other welfare benefit it's always possible that a future government will change the amount or the mechanism by which is calculated.

It's unlikely though that any government would make massive changes with only five years notice so you can probably regard it as being about as solid a guarantee as anything in life is, with the exception of death and taxes.

*Though I've never heard one of those people insisting that their state pension should be ten shillings and sixpence a week or whatever it actually was when they started working, so there's always a bit of selectivity in how they think the guarantee is supposed to work.

HedgehogRulez

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81888476#Comment_81888476

ah, but how many more years will they need in 2 years time? That’s the nub of it!

Silvertabby

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81888694#Comment_81888694

Good point. I started work in 1971, when the State pension was £6 per week. According to the BoE inflation calculator, that would now be £76 per week. An excellent example of 'be careful what you wish for'.

No, I'm not a WASPI !