State Pension Contributions

Nov 22, 2009 9 Replies
C

Please can someone advise me. I wrote to the State Pensions folks in Newcastle but am still awaiting a reply.



Please excuse the cross-posting to disparate groups. What is the latest no. of years of NI contributions that are required to have been made by a man in order to receive a full State Pension at 65?



I ask because in the 1960s/70s I was in full-time education, time which I understand is credited to my contribution recvord.



But in the late 1970s I spent 6 years teaching full-time in NZ. This time is supposed to count if I can provide proof that I was actually there. However the NZ Education Dept. junked all its records for that period and I actually do not now have proof of teaching there!!



So I need to know what the latest no. of years of NI contributions are to see if I am short due to being in NZ for 6 years.



Many thanks - Chris Brady


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B

According to HMRC: For those reaching state pension age before 6 April 2010: 39 years contributions for women, 44 years for men.

For those reaching state pension age from 6 April 2010 onwards: 30 years for everyone. More information is available at:

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Scroll down to the section entitled "How many qualifying years" etc. Good luck in sorting this out Chris. As my husband changed employers regularly throughout his career it took him nearly 18 months to trace all his pension entitlements as some information provided by the DWP was incorrect.

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D

That depends whether you are old enough to retire on a state pension at 65.

I don't believe that is the case, although I'm fully paid up, so the details are not important.

The actual figure isn't difficult to find on the government web site. In less than five minutes I came up with

which says 30 years if you are a man born after 6th April 1945 and before April 1959. If you were born after then, the question is invalid. If you were born earlier, the answer is 44.

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R

At age 16 and 17 NI credits are given automatically, but for the tax years after you turned 18 you were supposed to inform the NI office (which was part of the DHSS back then) you were in full time education. Failing that the NI office would have wrote to you after a while if there were no NI credits or contributions on your record for a period of

3 years. Usually it would be accompanied by a request for you to pay £X to make good any shortfall but again if you had contacted the NI office they would have credited your NI account with credits for those years. You may have been in New Zealand by the time they wrote to you. If you didn't contact the NI office or pay voluntary contributions then those years will be blank on your conts record.

I'm not sure what the situation is now re: NI credits for students in further education but that was the situation back then and until the late 80s at the very least.

If you are about to turn 65 then for men it is 44 years, for men turning

65 on or after April 6 next year it is reducing to 30 years.

The age at which you can claim a State Pension is due to start rising in the next few years so depending on your age now it may not be 65 when you can claim a State Pension. If you were born on or after 6 April 1959 then it will rise from 65 to 68 in 6 month stages from 2024 (eg April to Sept 1959, 65.5 years of age, Oct 59 to March 1960, 66 years of age etc). That said, the Government have proposed bringing forward the dates at which the age will increase for men only.

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M

When you reach the age of 60 you are awarded 5 years contributions free.

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C

Thank you - I didn't know that.

Hmm - looks like I have more than enough years. I wonder if they give refunds ....

CJB.

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M

No they don't. Some people are miffed that they have paid over thousands of pounds of their own money to make up past deficiencies to no purpose.

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I

In message , Max Demian writes

Hold on. I think that this has been pointed out already, but just to make things clear, between 60 and 65, you only get your contributions 'free' if you are not working. If you're working, you pay as usual.

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C

HMRC say you may be entitled to a refund if you were unaware that you were paying too much in NI contributions.

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Chris

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