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.