State Pension Question

[johnny.5]

if you pay more in do you get more out per week ?

[barry1010]

No, it's not only you, lb.  I paid into SERPS, too, for a short while and opting out to pay in to my employers' pension scheme.  It worked out well for me.

As already said, the national insurance contributions you pay today pays for the current pensioners.

 

[ladybirder]

Bazile have a read of this, it explains SERPS.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/uk/pensions/serps-pension/

[barry1010]

SERPS is no longer an option, it ended it 2002.  The Second State Pension Scheme replaced it and that ended in 2016.  There is no new scheme. 

[New Judge]

"...are my contributions now going to some elese ?"

No you misundersand, Johnny.

As Auntypoll explains, the State Pension Scheme is not a pension scheme in the  traditional sense. A normal scheme invests its members contributions and they are paid out when the member retires.

National Insurance is essentially an extension to general taxation. The receipts go into a general fund from which "pensions" are paid.

The government makes this very tenuous link beween money contributed to the scheme and that paid out in the hope that people will believe that it is a traditional pension scheme. But traditional pension schemes do not pay out the same amoun to those who have made substantial contributions aas it does to those who have mde no contributions at all. 

"I don't understand why there are a reported several hundred thousand people entitled to PC who do not claim it."

It my have something to do with the fact that the application form is some 24 pages long and contains 240 questions:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6582f7c4ed3c3400133bfc8f/pc1-interactive.pdf

[Ken4155]

^

It has been my experience that most DWP application forms are longer than the bible.

However, no ,matter the sum of PC one receives, it is worth ploughing through the minefield of the application for the added benefits it brings.

 

[Bazile]

Thanks for the link LB 

What if ( as suggested in link ) you no longer have the pay slips to check or the employer is no longer in business .

How else can you find out about whether or not you paid into SERPS !

[youngmafbog]

//"I don't understand why there are a reported several hundred thousand people entitled to PC who do not claim it."//

Many of the older generation were/are too proud to claim a benefit.

[youngmafbog]

TRy this Contracted out of the Additional State Pension: Check if you were contracted out - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

 

[youngmafbog]

Grrr

https://www.gov.uk/contracted-out/check-if-you-were-contracted-out

 

 

 

[davebro3]

I still can't get my head around the fact that older pensioners need a lower pension than newer ones.

[Deskdiary]

"If you complete the minimum number of years required at those earnings, even though you have never paid a penny in NI, you will receive the full State Pension."

 

And...

 

"It's actully worse than that because some people can earn no money at all, but still be credited with qualifying years..."

 

I know I'm being pedantic, but because of the outrageousness of the above, it should only be referred to as a 'pension' for those that have paid-in, for all others it should be referered to as 'benefits'.

[ladybirder]

DD I had a right argument with a woman at the DWP a few years ago when she kept on referring to my pension as a benefit.  She refused to stop doing it.  Good job we were talking over the phone and not over a counter!!!

[barry1010]

davebro, many older pensioners get much more than the £220 'new' state pension but the basic amount for the 'old' pension is woeful 

[youngmafbog]

LB, the reason they like to refer to the State Pension as a benefit is becasue they will be able to means test it.  Even if you have paid in.

Just watch this space now Robber Reeves is on situ.

[ladybirder]

Trembling in me boots YMF.

[jourdain2]

I and OH are on 'old' pensions. They are not a benefit, we paid for them.

When we were working, we were paying for my parents' generation - who hadn't had the chance to pay for a full pension themselves - as well as for part/most of ours.... the missing bit to be made up by our children and so on and so on.  Or so it was explained to me.  Whatever, I paid for it, itis not a Benefit.

[youngmafbog]

jourdain, I agree.  But the Government (and civil service advisors) dont seem to agree. 😦

[THECORBYLOON]

Retirement Pension has been referred to as a benefit since the 1946 National Insurance Act.

[newmodarmy]

//I still can't get my head around the fact that older pensioners need a lower pension than newer ones.//

It's a bit messy but I think there are two factors at play. First the number of years needed for a full pension was  lower (30 years for some). Second, those getting the lower state pension will be eligible for pension credit top up (provided there's not other work or private pension to complicate things)

[New Judge]

“I know I'm being pedantic,…”

You’re not being pedantic at all, dd. The State “Pension” scheme is not worthy of the name.

“….but because of the outrageousness of the above, it should only be referred to as a 'pension' for those that have paid-in, for all others it should be referered to as 'benefits'.”

I would go further than that and say that not only should those who have made sufficient contributions be entitled to a pension (in the proper sense of the word) but that the amount paid should be directly related to those contributions and not some ham-fisted “qualifying years” nonsense.

There are so many outrageous anomalies as to make this scheme laughable (if it was not so serious).

I did warn you that you've started me off!  🤣