The gov't is not doing much to advertise the implications of the changes to the State Pension.
My wife recently sent off for a Pension Forecast. She was not expecting much of a pension because she has spent more time raising a family than going out to work. It turns out, however, that she has ten years of qualifying contributions, backed up by ten years of 'Home Responsibility Protection'. Because the number of qualifying years have been reduced to 30, this means she will get 20/30's of the full basic pension (as things stand at the present).
She also, however, has the opportunity to make voluntary contributions for nine years in the past when she either paid no contributions, or insufficient for a qualifying 'year'. We can buy back those 9 years for £3,200 which would give her 29/30's of the full basic pension - and which would be recovered in less than three years of pension payments. A no-brainer really and we will be doing so.
Although we don't have to repay all those nine years of arrears in one lump sum, we learn from yesterdays Financial Mail, that if we don't pay these arrears by next April, the annual charge for a year's arrears will be going up from £420 to £630 - a 50% increase! There was nothing to that effect in the bumph that came with the pension forecast! I think that far more should be done to let people know about these changes which can have a dramatic effect upon their financial situation in retirement.
Ret.