Is it worth paying for missed NI years on my state pension ?

Londonlisa12 wrote: »

in fact it’s better under current rules to be pennies less since then you are entitled to pension credit and all the freebies that brings.

That also means living in relative poverty for the rest of your life. That's not a desirable outcome, just sometimes least bad for those who have left it too late to do better.

Depending on your household's income situation it may be possible to do a lot better by also making work or private pension contributions.

The pension credit means test applies to household income and defined benefit pensions typically eliminate the potential for pension credit.

Even if never working again there's the potential to make £720 a year by paying 2880 net into a personal pension until age 75 then from 55 withdrawing the 3600 after tax relief value. Don't withdraw the taxable part without more discussion if more work paying more than 4000 a year is possible.

metrobus wrote: »

But they are better off than living off basic state pension which millions are

How? If someone only has the basic state pension they are also eligible for pension credit. Unless they choose not to claim it, which happens.

metrobus wrote: »

Like we all know you are punished for being prudent in later life.

Avoiding being stuck with what society decides the minimum is a reward for prudence, not a punishment for it.

There are ranges where you can cease to qualify for things but if you're in those ranges you're on the edge of society's minimum still and it's not good to plan to be there if you can plan and avoid it.

grnglide wrote: »

But the nSP full rate is set above the rate of PC to minimise this happening. ... The Basic Pension of the old scheme is less than PC though.

metrobus wrote words which made the assertion about the basic state pension, not the single tier state pension.

I expect that most recipients of just the basic state pension who aren't getting pension credit are single women in their 80s or older.

metrobus wrote: »

But they are better off than living off basic state pension which millions are

(my bold)

metrobus wrote: »

Wrong, you do not get PC if you get full SP

There's something called the basic state pension. The full basic state pension is currently £129.20 a week and this is well below the threshold for pension credit. If all a person is getting is BSP then barring capital rules they are likely to be eligible for pension credit.

"Full SP" has no clear meaning. If it's intended to mean:

1. "maximum state pension without deferral, accrued in their own name" then it's currently over £300 a week so eligibility for pension credit is unlikely. A person could get that much due to the earnings-related part of the old pension. The accrual constraint is there because under the old rules both earnings-related and deferred state pension increases can be inherited. I wouldn't be surprised to learn of state pensions over £400 a week without deferral increases or over £1,000 a week with lots of deferral.

2. "maximum single tier state pension without transitional protection" then I think that pension credit is unlikely* given that the level was designed to be just above pension credit. Very few state pension recipients get this because most reached their state pension age before 6 April 2016 and are instead receiving a state pension made up of basic state pension plus additional state pension and graduated retirement benefit. Most of those from 6 April 2016 won't be on it for some time as well, because their old rules calculation ended up higher so they have a protected higher level.

Given your reply you were probably thinking of something like 2 when you wrote "basic state pension". You may not even have known that there's something called basic state pension that most current state pensioners get as part of their pension.

If you'd written anything close to single tier or new state pension it's unlikely that anyone would have disagreed with you. But you used the exact name of the thing most current state pensioners get. Which left readers choices including:

1. believing that you meant what you wrote and wondering how 129.60 could stop someone getting pension credit
2. believing you just didn't know what you'd written
3. believing that you were trolling

The kindest initial interpretation was 1, so I asked you how. Your reply then made it clear that it probably wasn't 1 so I took the kindest of the other two and explained what the basic state pension is so you'd understand why basic state pension got you a reaction that what you were probably thinking of wouldn't have got.

(shrug) you seem to have just got unlucky with your word choice and missing the knowledge about the most common part of the state pensions being paid today that would have led you to catch the mistake.

No big deal, you learned a bit more about the state pension and most here would probably agree with what you seem to have thought you were writing.

*Alice Holt explained why I wrote just unlikely