A hike in the state pension age means thousands of Brits nearing retirement are not sure what agethey will be when they get their state pension.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimated that around 130,000 people in their early 60s had no idea when they could start claiming the key benefit.
Alice Haine, a personal finance expert at Evelyn Partners, explains that the state pension is a weekly payment made to people of state retirement age. It is paid in addition to any private or company pension a saver may have and is also based on 35 years of National Insurance contributions.
Your state pension age is the earliest age you can start receiving your State Pension. It may be different to the age you can get a workplace or personal pension, some pension schemes will let you withdraw your pension money at the age of 55, although that is set to rise from 6 April 2028
When is my state pension age?
The State Pension age is regularly reviewed, so while these are the ages at which you’ll get your state pension they may be subject to change.
Haine explains that the state pension age is 66, but if you were born on or after 6 April 1960 after then it will go up in increments from 66 to 67 by April 2028.
Haine says: “The state pension age will rise further to 68 between 2044 and 2046, although that may be brought forward.”
What state pension do I get?
In April 2016, the state pension changed. There are now two types of state pension, the old or basic state pension and the new state pension.
If you are a women born before 6 April 1953 or a man born before 6 April 1951 you will be on the old state pension while women born after 6 April 1953 and men born after 6 April 2051 will get the new state pension.
The full new State Pension is £230.25 per week. You need at least 35 years of NI contributions or credits to get the full amount and you need to have made NI contributions for at least 10 years to get the old or the new state pension.
The old state pension also allowed a spouse to claim xtra based on your spouse or civil partner’s NI contributions and there was an additional State Pension which allowed Brits to top up their pension under the old system (see page 7).
Some people who contracted out of the additional state pension will get less because their NI contributions were paid into their privat pension
The full old state pnsion works out at £176.45 per week if you had 30 years of NI contributions or credits to get the full amount.
How do I get my state pension?
You should receive a letter from the Pension Service four monthe before you reach state pension age. If not you should contact the pension service.
You can make a claim up to 4 months in advance, which is often a good idea as it can a while to process. You can do it at www.gov.uk/get-state-pension to claim online.
You can also claim your state pension and carry on working and you can choose to defer your state pension which means you can get an increase every week you defer, as long as you defer for at least 9 weeks.
Your State Pension increases by the equivalent of 1% for every 9 weeks you defer. This works out as just under 5.8% for every 52 weeks.
