Ni Contributions / State Pension

[Bazile]

Is there a government site or something that someone can go on to see what the state of play is as regards to their own personal NI contributions and how it will affect their state retirement pension ? ( if that's what it is still called )

What pension does the state provide at retirement ?

[Buenchico]

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-statement

[Buenchico]

and
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ni/intro/online-statement.htm

[Bazile]

Thanks Chris

The person in question is not yet approaching retirement but would like to know how currently her NI contributions is affecting/ impacting any retirement pension i.e is there a shortfall at the present time

[Buenchico]

Thanks for that.

It's important to remember that Pension Credit might also be relevant as well.

If a pensioner's total weekly income (from their State Pension and any other sources) comes to less than £148.35 (at current rates) then Pension Credit tops it up to that amount. So if someone only has their State Pension as income, it doesn't matter whether they get the full amount of State Pension or just a small fraction of it. They'll still end up with a total of £148.35 per week anyway.

The above figures assume that the pensioner is single. Couples get their weekly income topped up to £226.50.

[Bazile]

chris
Over the years her NI contributions have been small due to low paid jobs and periods out of work .

Some years ago the Government encouraged people to opt out of SERPS contributions and instead to have their NI payments diverted to a private pension , which she did ;( which is worth next to nothing .)
I think that she is back paying ni contributions to the state

Anyway from what you say she does not have to worry about any shortfall in NI contributions - yes ?

Also will her husband's income ( pension or otherwise ) affect things ?

[Buenchico]

>>>she does not have to worry about any shortfall in NI contributions - yes?
and
>>>Also will her husband's income ( pension or otherwise ) affect things?

They're not easy to answer because the whole system is changing anyway! By the time your friend gets to State Pension age, the State Pension will have gone up from £113.10 per week (at the current level) to at least £148.40 per week (which applies from 6 April 2016 but with the actual figure not being set until next autumn). That's largely to give all pensioners something of what many (but not all) currently receive as a 'top up' by way of Pension Credit. There has been no announcement that Pension Credit will then disappear but it''s still possible that there may be changes to the way that it works.

Your friend needs to read this
https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension
and, I suggest, make some voluntary NI contributions BEFORE APRIL 2016.

[Bazile]

Thanks again