There are two parts to the State
Pension - the Basic State Pension (BSP) and the Additional Pension
(AP).
State Pension Age (SPA)
The State Pension Age (SPA) is the earliest age you can draw
your State Pension. Your SPA is specific to your date of
birth.
Historically, the SPA has been 60 for women and 65 for
men. However, these are changing.
- Between 2010 and 2020 women's retirement ages are increasing to
65.
- Between 2024 and 2026, retirement ages for men and women are
increasing to 66.
- Between 2034 and 2036, retirement ages for men and women are
increasing to 67.
- Between 2044 and 2046, retirement ages for men and women are
increasing to 68.
Basic State Pension (BSP)
The BSP is a flat-rate pension paid to anyone who has paid
enough National
Insurance Contributions or has enough credits when they reach
their SPA.
If you reached your SPA on or after 6 April
2010
The full rate of BSP is payable if you have 30 qualifying years on your
National Insurance record. If you have less than 30, you will
receive a proportionately lower BSP (i.e. if you have 23 qualifying
years, your BSP will be 23/30ths of the full amount). You
only need one qualifying year to get some BSP.
If you reached your SPA before 6 April 2010
The full rate of BSP was payable if you had 39 (for women) or 44
(for men) qualifying years. The minimum BSP (25% of the full
amount) was payable if you had 10 (women) or 11 (men) qualifying
years.
Spouses and civil partners
Spouses and civil partners who have not paid sufficient
contributions may receive a pension based on their partners'
contributions. That pension could be 60% of their partners'
BSP.
Husbands' and civil partners' eligibility came into force on 6
April 2010.
Additional Pension (AP)
State Second Pension (S2P)
This is paid in addition to the BSP.
Until April 2002, it was known as SERPS and
depended solely on the NICs you paid as an employee.
From 6 April 2002, SERPS was reformed to provide a more generous
AP for low and moderate earners, carers and people with a long-term
illness or disability. The reformed AP, now known as S2P is based
upon earnings on which standard rate Class 1 NICs are paid or
treated as having been paid.
S2P provides a top-up to the BSP based on your actual or deemed
earnings. All employees have to contribute towards the AP unless
they make alternative arrangements by contributing to an
occupational or personal pension scheme which is contracted out of
S2P.
Graduated Retirement Benefit
This was the forerunner to SERPS and the amount of pension
earned depends on the number of units of graduated contributions
you paid between April 1961 and April 1975 and the value of a unit
at the time you come to claim your pension.
Pension Credit
Pension Credit is a means-tested social
security benefit introduced on 6th October 2003 and administered by
the Pension Service. It is designed to provide those aged 60
and over with a minimum level of income and give extra cash to
those aged 65 and over with modest incomes who have made savings
for their retirement.
Click here to
read about Pension Credit.
Q & A's
You are treated as individuals so will each get a Basic State
Pension (BSP) based on your own records. The married couple's
pension is designed to help those where one of them has a reduced
BSP because they have not worked or paid reduced NI
contributions.
If you are over 60 you can apply for Pension Credit.
This could supplement your State and other Pensions. If you
are under 60 you could look into the possibility of paying into a
private pension or a pension with your employer if they offer
one.
Click here to
read more about Pension Credit.
If you reached your State Pension Age (SPA) before
6 April 2010, you will automatically have got Home
Responsibilities Protection (HRP) for each complete tax
year since 1978 that you had been receiving Child Benefit for a
child under 16.
If you reach your SPA on or after 6 April 2010, you will build
up credits for whole years that you:
- Are a foster carer;
- Care for one or more severely disabled persons for 20 hours a
week or more; or
- Get Child Benefit for a child under 12 years of age.
Any whole years of HRP that you may have built up before 6 April
2010 (up to a maximum of 22) will be converted into a qualifying
year for the BSP.
The State Pension Age (SPA) for women is gradually being
increased from 60 to 65 and it will affect you if you were born
after 5 April 1950. The SPA for both men and women is then going to
increase gradually again from 65 to 68. This will affect you
if you were born after 5 April 1959. Try our SPA
calculator.
In normal circumstances the Pensions Service will write out to
you about four months in advance of your reaching your State
retirement age to advise you of your pension and they will send you
the necessary form to apply for it. However if this does not happen
then you should get in contact with them directly.
No, the soonest you can get your State Pension is when you reach
your State Pension Age.
This is possible and your State Pension will be increased by
approximately 10.4% per year for each year that it is deferred.
The State Pension is increased each April in line with
inflation. From 2012, it will increase in line with earnings
Unfortunately not. The new rules giving a full basic state
pension based on only 30 qualifying years is only effective for
those reaching SPA on or after 6 April 2010. As you will reach
yours before then, you will be covered by the old rules. You will
still need 39 (for a female) or 44 (for a male) qualifying years
for the full amount.
