reduced pension payments

Buster100

I have been in touch with DPWP regards my wife's pension she gets £109.48 a week I questioned this and got her N.I. record from HMRC. The record showed that she had 28 years full and 11 years not full, the years not full was when she was looking after our children?. At these times she was claiming child benefit. Can she us these not full years of child benefit to top up the not full years ? My wife was born 09/03/1945, the years not full are1975 to 1978 and 1980 to 1988 there are some not full years prior to 1975 but they are not listed. The DPWP says she has 91% of the requisite qualifying years to receive full basic pension (£176.45) but currently receives £82.54 which is less than 50% of the full state pension is this correct. She does also receive £7.21 Pre 97 addition, £8.49 Post 97 addition, £11.03 Post addition and £0.22 Graduated Retirement benefit, this all adds up to the £109.48. Is this correct or is there anything we can do to be able to claim the full pension rights.

p00hsticks

No, you can't combine several 'not full' years to make a full one.

As your wife would have reached state pension age in 2005, she would initially have needed 39 years to qualify for the full basic rate state pension, but the number of years required would then have been reduced if the child benefit was in her name - if it was in your name then they may not have linked the records.

Have you looked into whether she is missing any Home Responsibilities Protection - it would be worth applying, although I understand that the wait times are lengthy ?

Home Responsibilities Protection: Overview - GOV.UK

Note that for those reaching SPA prior to 2010 this didn't give credits for NI years in the same way that Child Benefit does now, so the years woudl not appear full, but rather it lowered the total number of years needed for the full amount of pension.

jem16

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6660258/reduced-pension-payments

Home Responsibilities Protection only began in April 1978 so the earlier Not Full years won’t count. The years from 1980 to 1988 might but they may already be included as HRP doesn’t show on the NI Record.

However I’d be asking the DWP why your wife’s BSP is so low. With 28 Full years, she should be receiving at least £126pw and that’s not taking any HRP into account. If the DWP are saying she has 91% of the requisite number needed for a full BSP you need to ask then why isn’t she receiving that much?

Silvertabby

Did your wife pay reduced rate NI (married woman's stamp) at some point? Confusingly, when HMRC say 'full NI year' they actually mean 'full financial year' rather than full NI.

Buster100

I have had some further information on my wife's pension she applied for it when we lived in Andorra in 2009 and it was frozen at £82.45. We returned to UK in 2012 and informed HMRC and sent a letter to DWP but never checked that the amount it was just payed into our joint account (stupid I know). The question I am trying to get the DWP to answer is have we any way to get the backdated increases that we are owed. If anybody has any thoughts on this it would be appreciated. The DWP has neither accepted they have or have not got the the letter.

DRS1

I thought people got a letter each year saying what the increase to their state pension would be? Doesn't she get such a letter?

If the pension started at £82.45 and is now £109.48 she must have had some increases. When did they start and why?