Checking State Pension increase

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115640#Comment_82115640

The middle one, if you reached state pension age since 2016.

QrizB

OP here is your thread from 2016:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5460959/contradictory-state-pension-estimate

At that time you hadn't yet reached SPA but were due to do so in 2016/17. Your SP forecast at that time was £122.60 pw.

£122.60, increased by the Triple Lock to the present day, would be £190.06. Last year (2025/26) it would have been £181.36.

It's likely that however-much your current pension exceeds £190.06 by is your additional pension that only increases by CPI.

goodValue

I've been through the correspondence from DWP, and found one time that they gave a
breakdown of New State Pension and Extra State Pension. This was prior to any payments,
and was valid for only two days!
With these values and using the Annual Increase link from posts above, I've traced the history
of the weekly payments. These agree with the values sent to me by DWP, to a penny.
So the DWP calculations seem pretty robust.
My only concern now is whether the initial values were correct, especially wrt contracting out.

goodValue

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115731#Comment_82115731

From this, it is clear I was overwhelmed by the intricacies of just the contracting out aspect.
I still feel as though I understand only the tip of the iceberg.
Perhaps more important now is whether or not the pension could have been improved.
A couple of years ago, there was a lot of coverage in the press about the government opening up the ability
to do top-ups.
Even then the DWP said my pension could not be improved even though there were years available for top-up.
Was this greater ability to do top-ups to improve pensions only for a certain group of people?
Is there a rule that a top-up year cannot be used to replace a year for which you were contracted out?

QrizB

I think you're barking up the wrong tree here.

Was this greater ability to do top-ups to improve pensions only for a certain group of people?

Reading that thread, you already had thirty pre-2016 years. Thirty pre-2016 years earned you the maximum possible pension under the "old rules" of £119.30 plus your S2P of £3.30. Adding extra years would not change that.

Is there a rule that a top-up year cannot be used to replace a year for which you were contracted out?

Years are either full or they are not full. Full pre-2016 years all count equally; it doesn't matter if you were contracted out or not.

DRS1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82117091#Comment_82117091

You went through all that in 2016. You are not going to get different answers now.

I may be oversimplifying it but you got to SPA too soon for topping up to help you.

molerat

Back in that 2016 post I gave a quick explainer calculation as to why buying gap years would be of no benefit.

You have a "new" pension 34/35 of £155.60 = £151.15 - £45.96 = £105.19 so your actual amount must be your "old" pension of £122.60 as
it is larger. Buying an additional pre 2016 year would make no difference to the "old" pension as you already have 30/30 but the "new"
calculation would be £155.60 - £45.96 = £109.64, still lower than the "old" pension.

goodValue

From the 2016 post that is linked above:

There will be people with less than 35 years who, because they have been contracted in, have pension forecast amounts over £155.65, and others like me who have more than 35 years but who, because they've been contracted out their entire lives still have only the basic forecast of aroiund £120.

The good news for me and people in the same position is that because I still have ten years until I reach state retirement age, by continuiong to work or by buying NI credits I can get that figure up to around £155 (by which time I'll have 45 NI years), whist still reaping the benefit of having a private pension on top and having paid a lower rate of NI in the past as a consequence.

My understanding of this is that even though the poster had 35 qualifying years, he would receive the amount for the Basic State Pension because of having been contracted out and the old rules gave him a greater amount than the new rules.

However, he could get further years that would improve his pension, and reach the amount for the full New State Pension.

This appeared to me as though these further years were replacing contracted out years.

Have I misunderstood this?

DRS1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82118245#Comment_82118245

Yes I think you have. They would not be replacing one year with another they would be adding extra years. You had no extra years to add.

They are not cherry picking the best 35 years to use they are using say 45 years to get the maximum new state pension.

goodValue

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82118254#Comment_82118254

But I did have extra years to add.

When I contacted DWP about 2 years ago, they said that I had years available to purchase, but that this would not increase my pension (without giving an explanation why not).

Requests for an explanation of this went unanswered.