Friday 27 July 2012

CAN I GET MORE THAN THE BASIC STATE PENSION?

In addition to the Basic State Pension, people who are, or have been, employed on a PAYE basis and earning above a set level, may be entitled to additional State Pension Benefits. This does not apply to the Self-Employed. Your Pension Forecast will also give you an idea of how much additional State Pension you may qualify for based on your employment history. This additional State Pension has been called by different names over the years, including the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) and most recently the State 2nd Pension.

Friday 20 July 2012

STATE PENSION – COMING UP SHORT?

For various reasons you may not be on target to get the full Basic State Pension. That can be due to periods of living abroad or not working. In many cases it may be possible to remedy that by making voluntary National Insurance Contributions so you can top up your benefit to the maximum. Your State Pension Forecast will help you to establish what you may need to do in this regard. If you are not going to get the maximum Basic State Pension, you could still qualify for a reduced one.

http://www.sovereignfinance.org/

Monday 16 July 2012

STATE PENSION – HOW MUCH WILL I GET?

There is also help in answering the "How much?" question. You can go on-line or telephone the State Pension Forecast team and obtain a forecast which will give you an estimate of the State Pension that you may get at State Pension age. If you live in the UK you can get a forecast online by visiting the website www.direct.gov.uk/pensionforecast and following the links, or by calling the Future Pension Centre who will take your application over the phone. Their telephone number is 0845 3000168.

Monday 9 July 2012

STATE PENSION – WILL I GET IT?

How do you qualify for it? The amount of basic State Pension you are entitled to is based on your National Insurance contributions record over your working life from age 16 until State Pension age. A minimum amount of contributions and/or credits is required to make a year count as a “qualifying year” towards your overall contributions record. The rules are a bit complex but the new rules basically require that a man or woman needs to have built up 30 qualifying years or more before their State Retirement Age to qualify for the full basic State Pension. Normally a qualifying year is one in which you have paid the full required National Insurance payments for your employment or self-employment. In some cases, however, you can build up qualifying year “credits” without having to have paid National Insurance payments, e.g. those getting Child Benefit or caring for someone who is sick or disabled, or those who are ill or unemployed.


So the obvious questions are “When will I get it?” and “How much will I get?” To find out when you will get it, you can go on-line to www.direct.gov.uk/en/pensionsandretirementplanning and go to “Calculating Your State Pension Age”. You input your date of birth and you will find out what your State Retirement Age will be. Unfortunately the previous retirement ages of 60 for women and 65 for men are changing – for the worse.

Monday 2 July 2012

STATE PENSION – WORTH KNOWING ABOUT!


There is much discussion in the media about people having to work longer because they will not have built up an adequate pension. We do see this failure to make adequate provision on virtually a daily basis. Sometimes it is because the person’s income will just not stretch to it and in other cases, people simply prefer not to worry about saving for the long term. In any case there is at least one area where virtually everyone who works can rely on as regards a pension income – the State Pension. It may not be huge but it is still worth having! Many people lack information about the State Pension and how it might affect them, so we decided to cover the basic points here.

In 2012/2013 the Basic State Pension payment for those who qualify is up to £107.45 per week. This payment goes up annually in line with inflation. This may not sound a great deal, but to get a similar pension income from a personal pension you would need to have saved up over £100,000. It is worth having! You might be interested to know that the concept of a UK State Pension did not come about until 1908. At that time you needed to be 70 or over and you would receive £31.50 per year!