The State Pension is a weekly (paid every four weeks in arrears) payment system created by the Government of the United Kingdom that most people can obtain when they reach the designated State Pension age.
Your State Pension age depends upon your birth date and the amount of State Pension you’ll receive will depend on the qualifying years of National Insurance payments you possess. The National Insurance payments include your National Insurance contributions which are paid when you’re working as well as credited to you when you’re not working.
Different types of State Pension
At present, there are three types of State Pension plans and they are Basic State Pension (if your State Pension age reached before 6th April 2016), New State Pension (if your State Pension age reached after 6th April 2016) and Additional State Pension (if you have started claiming Basic State Pension before 6th April 2016).
The State Pension age is defined as the earliest age at which you can claim your State Pension. It depends on the year when you were born. At the time of this writing, the State Pension age is 66 years for both men and women. However, for people who have a birth date succeeding 5th April 1960, a phased increase in the State Pension age will be introduced to 67 years and finally to 68 years.
Eligibility and Requirements
For Basic State Pension, you can obtain Basic State Pension if your date of birth is before 6th April 1953 (for females) or 6th April 1951 (for males). And for New State Pension, you can obtain New State Pension if your date of birth is on or after 6th April 1953 (for females). For males, the birth date should be on or after 6th April 1951.
A minimum of thirty qualifying years of National Insurance credits or contributions will be required to obtain the maximum benefits under the Basic State Pension scheme. However, if you’re under the New State Pension Scheme, then a minimum of ten qualifying years of National Insurance credits or contributions will be required.
Your National Insurance record will be based on the following factors: how much National Insurance you were paying when you were working, how much National Insurance Credits you were getting when you were sick, unemployed or a carer/parent, and how much voluntary National Insurance contributions you have paid.
In case, you have less than thirty qualifying years on your National Insurance credits or contributions, then your Basic State Pension amount will be less than 141.85 UK Pounds per week.
In case you have a civil partner or a spouse, then you’ll have the chance to inherit or increase your State Pension pay. An increase in State Pension will be allowed if you’re either not eligible for Basic State Pension or your Basic State Pension is less than 85 UK Pounds per week.
Additionally, you can inherit State Pension from your civil partner or spouse if you’re either not eligible for Basic State Pension or your Basic State Pension is lower than 141.85 UK Pounds per week.
If you satisfy any of the aforementioned conditions, then you’ll need more than thirty qualifying years on your National Insurance record to obtain the maximum amount of Basic State Pension. For any other State Pension, the number of years will be eleven (for men) and ten (for women).
There’s a possibility that your State Pension will be affected if you’re a transgender having a birth date between 24th December 1919 and 3rd April 1945, have already obtained a State Pension before 4th April 2005 and have sufficient evidence of your gender reassignment surgery taken place before 4th April 2005.
How to Claim State Pension
State Pension isn’t received automatically; instead, you have to claim the same. Your State Pension can be claimed by any of the following procedures: calling the State Pension Claim helpline at 0800 731 7898 (telephone) or 0800 731 7339 (textphone); filing the downloaded State Pension claim form at the official website and mailing the same to your local pension centre; or visiting the online portal which is open round the clock.
When You Need Help
For technical help on online services, you can call 0800 169 0154. To just obtain information on your State Pension, to report a death or to report change in address or bank details, you can reach out to support on 0800 731 0469. If you would like to send a mail, the address is: The Pension Service, Post Handling Site A, Wolverhampton WV98 1AF.
