PENSIONS

We are often asked if an individual will qualify for a FULL STATE RETIREMENT PENSION
Currently 22/23 tax year a FULL STATE PENSION is paid at £185.15 per week, this is rising to £203.85 per week

Unfortunately the process of obtaining the relevant information requires logging-on to your personal HMRC account, a phone call to HMRC for missing years and then another phone call to HMRC to inform them of the missing years and to make the necessary payment. A really poor system in my opinion and very complicated, unnecessarily………………

In the 1980’s/90’s it was very common that individuals were advised to contract out of SERPS (State Earning Related Pension Scheme), this meant that your National Insurance contributions deducted from your salaries was at a reduced amount, it was general done as the individual had a separate private pension that they contributed to on a monthly basis.

Contracting out of SERPS can result in a reduced final state pension entitlement and in order to correct this a ‘top up’ contribution can be made.

For other individuals they may not have paid the full amount of qualifying years, currently 35 years.

If you would like to see your State Pension Summary and detail of Qualifying years you can do so by accessing your own personal HMRC Government Gateway.
If you need to set one up – go to https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension
Create a log-on
Get a Government Gateway ID and set up a password
You will need your passport details & driving licence details to prove who you are to access your account
Once in your account you can check your State Pension Summary

If you need to ‘top-up’ or add ‘qualifying years’ you will first need to call HMRC on 0800 731 0175 to ask:
How many years you need to get the maximum state pension
Which years are the cheapest to make up the qualifying years

When you have the details of number of years missed and number of years needed you will then have to call HMRC on 0300 200 3500 to inform them of the years missing and needed to ‘top-up’ or ‘qualify’ and they will then calculate the payment required
You can then request details of how to make the payment using on-line banking:
Pay – HMRC NIC Receipts
Sort Code: 083220
Account Number: 12001004
Reference to Quote: – HMRC WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH A 18 Digit REFERENCE NUMBER

YOU SHOULD NOW BE ENTITLED TO A FULL STATE RETIREMENT PENSION

We hope this article was useful and provides you with all the detail necessary for you to check your pension status.
It is your own personal choice to decide on any additional top-up or qualifying years payments and you should first seek independent advice from a qualified advisor before making decisions, we do not accept any liability for any information or mis-information contained in this article. 8 March 2023