State Pension forecast only 33 full years retirement date 4 weeks off full year

noideapleasehelp

My grateful thanks to all of you have replied!

kermchem/LHW99, yes I did google search and there was a directive at the time that anyone in 1970s who went into education from age 16-18 got their NI credited.I did Saturday jobs - and summer jobs to get money to pay my way. But yes, I got those credits applied to my NI records. But when you went to degree level education, that didn't apply. And it still does not apply to those who go to university to this day.

QrizB - good point! Because I always worked as a "temporary" worker through agencies in the 70s, 80s and even 90s, there was no such scheme to even get holiday pay although it came in late 90s for temp workers. Contributions to an employer for a non-state pension automatically didn't really happen, so I'm pretty sure there are no pensions that I don't know of. I did work for a Council in the 70s, but they gave me the money back saying that I didn't qualify for their pension scheme so returned the money to me. Sadly, I'm sure there's no hidden pension for me to investigate.

Silvertaby you've raised a really important issue! What are the consequences of deferring your state pension? I didn't event think this was an issue until you've raised it so thank you so much for that. I'm now trying to work out the sums but yes, I won't live until 80 so yes, stuff to think about and perhaps defering in my case isn't right to do! It's hard thinking about this stuff but yes, it's something we must do although in my case it's caused emotional pain, and I've reached for the wine to cope as it's also about the life decisions you made, and what happened to you later in life that you didn't plan! Again, note to younger self — understand how this all works so you get a full state pension because you are 28 years of age doing stuff and don't bother to understand the implications of the work/life you are doing as it's about getting income .. and then you wake-up and you're 65! Life just goes so damned quickly.

horsewithnoname and others I have NI numbers which are not TN numbers, that in the 70s and 80s I was allocated when I worked for employers. I've got 5 NI numbers from those periods. I was 16 at the time, and when I started work, I assumed that the employers sorted this out. I never got a "NI number" from Social Security at the time. And I remember that when I was working full-time for an employer, they never asked for my NI number! I just got allocated one. It wasn't until 1985 that the temp agency I was working for, who then went bust, said that the NI number I had been allocated was the one I needed to keep using for the rest of my life.

At the time they said, if I had so many different numbers I needed to address this, but I was in my 20s, and I didn't do it because "retirement" was a long way off!

I met with a group of friends who are musicians, and my age group/retirement group and when I said I've been doing this and asking for help from this forum, they've also shared that they are caught-out by the 35 year rule, and trying to find evidence to prove they worked for the gaps on their state pension forecast. Like me, they didn't know that there was a possibility that if you were a low earner or unemployed but not claiming unemployment benefit as it was at that time, that you could apply for credits towards your state pension and so like me, they are left with huge gaps and won't qualify for a full state pension.

As I've said, I wish I'd known that even though I was earning a low income (I worked for various charities for really low income full time, and so didn't qualify to pay NI) I could have applied to get my NI applied towards my pension. Whilst it may seem that I'm a slacker and haven't worked to get my pension, I've worked ever since I was 16, and so it's crazy just because I didn't do record checking myself of the sytem and how it was working, that the records on the current computer system will dictate who much state pension I get even though they are incorrect.

I don't have all the information from the 1970s, 80s and 90s to prove it but I have some. I moved houses and flats as a renter, that stuff just went missing. And yet, the govt don't have any of the records I have because at some point in time during the migration of data from paper to IT, it was decided by the govt that it wasn't worth their effort in migration everything so they stopped putting my records on their system. When I was young, I thought that all of this stuff with payslips and NI was taken care of by the employers. At no point in time was I told, you are responsible for all of this and making sure that the government systems work appropriately to record your records.

Lesson learnt. And thank you to all who have posted! I'm very grateful.

Marcon

I met with a group of friends who are musicians, and my age group/retirement group and when I said I've been doing this and asking for help from this forum, they've also shared that they are caught-out by the 35 year rule,

If they're your age group, then the 35 year 'rule' doesn't apply to them any more than it applies to you, as explained earlier in this thread. Only those born this century need 35 'full' years of NI to qualify for the full new state pension. Everyone else is under 'transitional' arrangements. https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get

You (and your friends) might also check if they'd be better looking at the possibility of claiming pensions credit if they're eligible. Quite apart from topping up your income, it opens the door to a lot of other benefits. See https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim

If you've been a UK employee since auto enrolment was introduced (it started to be phased in from 2012, and by 1 February 2018 even the smallest employers were subject to the requirements), are you quite sure you haven't got any non-state pension benefits?

noideapleasehelp

Hello Lovely People who kindly responded to my thread.

Just to update you. I received a letter today from HMRC. They've replied within 1 month of my writing to them. I submitted 6 years (I knew some were potentially full but 3 were good) of evidence (lots of photocopies (150-200) of my payslips) to HMRC. You may remember that I did this because my govt pension forecast was lower than the new state pension rate and my records showed only 33 full years. I could see they were missing loads of entries for years when I worked full-time. When I contacted the Future Pensions team they said that because I will come under the new state pension scheme, that if I could prove I had 2 years of paper records not on their current system and submitted this evidence to HMRC, that because I now come under the New State Pension, I could potentially qualify for the full state new state pension if those records proved 2 more years of NI contributions. I'm happy to report that HMRC have accepted the 3 good years and have kindly also updated my records on the "almost" full years, and my pension forecast now suggests that I will now qualify for the full state pension.

I was looking at deferring if HMRC didn't accept my evidence as Martin Lewis had suggested that this was an option if you are in good health etc. I'm planning to carry on working for other financial reasons. And someone on this post suggested this may not be a good idea to defer even if I am working. And, a couple of friends also suggested the same. And investigating this option, they do seem to be right, that if I defer, then I would need to live at least 15-20 years after I retire and take my state pension to break-even. So although I will have to pay extra tax (as it'll push me into the next tax bracket), I've decided to apply for the state pension when I'm entitled to it but carry on working.

Marcon, if you can explain why you believe that my age group don't qualify for a new state pension under the 35 year rule, and that it only appliles to those born this century, that will be most helpful. I'm now aware that sometimes, what is published vs what you may get might be a nasty surprise when you do apply and get less than expected based on the forecast.

Again, my very grateful thanks to all of you who posted on this thread. But just to suggest if there are others out there who were in my situation who have paper records dating back to 1970s and 1980s, with full years of evidence which are not on your NI records, then it really is worth spending that time (took me 1 week of totally dedicated time when on leave) to get this sorted.

All the best to all of you.

Yorkie1

Well done for your investigation work and the HMRC result!

Secret2ndAccount

Well done, and thank you for updating us. So often we get the question, then the suggestions, and the OP just disappears.

eskbanker

if you can explain why you believe that my age group don't qualify for a new state pension under the 35 year rule, and that it only appliles to those born this century, that will be most helpful

Per https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get

If your National Insurance record started after April 2016 you will need 35 qualifying years to get the full rate of new State Pension.

i.e. for those with NI before 2016, it's different…

noideapleasehelp

Hi eskbanker

Everything I've been told by Future Pensions team and HMRC say that athough the rules had changed in 2016, they still apply to my age group retrospectively. And they have a retro-fit algorithm, and have calculations that apply to my age year age group (I'm 65 and 3/4s) to qualify for the new state pension as long as we have 35 years of full-time NI contributions.

I appreiate that there are many who responded to my post who said they'd contributed over 40 years under the old scheme just to qualify for their state pension. But seems something changed and it seems I may benefit from that new scheme change although I'm the age I am and at 67 get my state pension.

Is this something that Martin Lewis has made everyone aware who is my age group? Is this something that we should all be aware if we are my age group? It doesn't seem that the new state pension applies to just those who are this generation but that we could all benefit if we have the right evidence to prove NI contributions over 35 years mindful that in my generation it was all paper driven and as I discovered, those paper driven records didn't make it onto the current govt database.

I'm mindful that when the govt introduced this they did it to save money, to stop paying out for pensions and try and make it predicatable when the previous schemes meant that loads of calculations had to be done (perhaps manually) to understand who got what. Now there's computers calculating this .. it's streamlining and saving money. But I was caught-out by this potentially - and this is why I raised this post — to highlight to those like me of this 6 months off from getting state retirement — that we need to be mindful of records and understand what this is all about and that because we were previously the paper driven records generation that HMRC don't have our records on file and as a result could miss out hugely on getting the new state pension.

Hope this helps everyone and do let me know if I've got this all wrong!

All the best

QrizB

And they have a retro-fit algorithm, and have calculations that apply to my age year age group (I'm 65 and 3/4s) to qualify for the new state pension as long as we have 35 years of full-time NI contributions.

If you personally need 35 years for a full New State Pension, it's just a coincidence in your paticular case. If you'd had earned more SERPS pension in one year of employment than you did, or had contracted-out in a year that you were actually contracted-in (or vice-versa), it's likely you wouldn't need 35 years but would need a different number.

There's no rule that people who are 65 and 3/4s all need 35 years, no more and no less.

noideapleasehelp

Hi QrizB

Can you please help me to understand what you are saying? My apologies for asking this.

So can I check my understanding of what you are saying to people like me please?

You are saying that the new state pension rules don't apply in my case?

You are suggesting that because people of my age group did SERPS, contracted out and beacuse of that maybe paid more in for several years then less, that some how there's a special calculation for us and that the 35 year rule doesn't apply?

Are you suggesting because I'm a straight forward case, this is why I'm qualiying for the new 35 year pension when actually I don't qualify at all because there is some other rule that my state pension will be calculated by that the govt website prediction is wrong?

And does this apply to others still working of my age group?

My kindness in advance and apologies for being so thick about all of this.

Kind regards

eastcorkram

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068399#Comment_82068399

I'm only one year older than you. I needed 31 years.