alfista1

35 years now??
Who does that apply to? DOUBLE FART!!

so I've got 7 years paid.
I'm 37.
If I pay in now until I'm 65 I will have 28+7= 35.
phewww omg

sir_eccles

Can you explain this? Do you mean you are only entitled to the single person pension not a couples pension?

thinbrit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22423878

nun

You should be happy at the changes to the state pension. Sure you have to pay 5 more years to get full pension, but the full pension has increased by a greater proportion! So you are paying voluntary NICs you'll be better off.

Contributions going from 30 to 35 years = 16.6% increase
Basic state pension going from £110 to £144 = 30.9% increase

As I pointed out with my 30 years of contributions before the new rules I'd have got a full pension of £110/wk, under the new rules with I'd get 30/35 of the new full pension which is £123/wk so I'd be better off even if I don't pay in another penny.

alfista1

well at least I can get it paid off by 65.
(and hopefully the mortgage)

Hotscot

So these changes, if I move to the UK with my US wife, say in 5 years, and I die before my wife, does she not get anything from my lifetime contributions?

nun

That's correct, under the new scheme everyone will get a pension based on individual contributions. Your wife will presumably get US SS and will get a UK pension based on any NI record she gets in the UK.

The thing that annoys me is that if you are a stay at home mother or carer you can use that to get a year of NI credits, what about the stay at home father. The Tories don't seem to think that the wife might work and the husband stay at home to look after the children.

The other thing is would a UK pension derived from "stay at home and carer credits" where there is no actual income be counted in WEP?

kodokan

Unless it's changed drastically since I was claiming Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP gives annual credits for mums, etc) then it's not gender-specific. Whichever parent wants to get the HRP... mum, dad, doesn't matter... all you have to do is put the Child Benefit claim in that person's name.

Interesting thought - wouldn't it be WEP'd, though, as it would be a non-contributory pension? Again, back in the day when I was claiming, you could only get up to 20 years of credits, I think it was, so it wouldn't be a full pension anyway.

HartleyHare

[QUOTE=kodokan;10851422]Unless it's changed drastically since I was claiming Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP gives annual credits for mums, etc) then it's not gender-specific. Whichever parent wants to get the HRP... mum, dad, doesn't matter... all you have to do is put the Child Benefit claim in that person's name.


This is correct, but it's called National Insurance Credits now. The credits are accrued if you are claiming Child Benefit for a child up to the age of 12. If one partner is earning £50-60k the amount of Child Benefit tapers off. If one partner earns over £60k there is no longer any entitlement to Child Benefit (you can either cancel the payments, or still receive them but complete a self-assessment to pay them back). Even if you are no longer entitled to Child Benfit payments, the Child Benefit claim form should still be completed to enable National Insurance credits to accrue.

Westham

Well I guess it's to late for me to catch up, last paid a stamp in 1979, will be 65 this coming April, I paid the stamp for 16 years and then was unemployed for 1 year and decided to go walk about, ended up in the USA in 1984 and worked here since then and paid into ss here in the states, I was wondering what I can expect in the way of Pension from the UK?? I have dual US & UK citizenship, I'm not sure how many years you have to work in the USA to get the full pension and have read somewhere they have an agreement with the UK that credits maybe given to the US from the UK for my working years there?? Or should I just apply to the UK and have whatever I am due sent to me here in the USA and pay taxes on it here........does anyone know which is the better legal way to go which will result in the best payout? Any advice would be most helpful.
Thanks.

thinbrit

UK pension calculator
https://www.gov.uk/calculate-state-pension
US SS estimator
http://www.ssa.gov/estimator/

nun

As it stands you'll get 16/30ths of the basic UK state pension. I'm not sure how the pension reforms will apply. I'd get a pension forecast asap. You can also pay Class 2 NI 6 years in arrears so you could get up to 22 years of contributions.

You need 10 years of US FICA payments to qualify for social security. If you have 30 years your SS will not be reduced by WEP for any UK benefit you get from non-SS wages. The reciprocal social security agreement between the US and the UK isn't applicable for you as you qualify for a benefit from both the UK and the US based on your payments.

So I would pay Class 2 NI 6 years in arrears....that will be about $1300.
Get a UK pension forecast.
File a USIndividual-2002 to exempt your UK state pension from UK tax.
Make sure you enter the amount of the UK state pension on line 16a of your 1040.
If you have less than 30 years of FICA payments talk to SSA about WEP from your 16 years of UK NI from earned income.

Westham

Hi,
Many thanks for your quick response, I will just about qualify for my 30 years us SS by the time I make it to 66 in April 2015. Having said that do you think I should just register for my Uk state pension and defer it for a year?
I also have a small British private retirement plan which I started taking payments on about 18 months ago, it is only 87 GBP per calendar month (20% deducted at source as I do not currently have a income tax return in the Uk, this is paid into a British bank account which is in my name........I know I need to declare this small income to the IRS but my question is will I loose 50% to the wep's program?

nun

If you have 30 years of SS you will not get your SS payments reduced by WEP.
If you live in the US you should not be paying UK tax on your UK pension, just US tax. File the USIndividual-2002 to get the UK pension paid to you without any tax being taken out and make a claim with HMRC to have the tax withheld refunded. The next question is how did you deal with the UK private pension on your US taxes before you started taking income and what type of pension is it? If it is invested in funds that you can direct things will be a bit complicated.

guitarmaan

Great thread, great info.

I sent that form off ages and ages ago, feeling very efficient at covering all bases. But they never bothered to reply to me, and it's been on my to-do list for too long.

I'll get the form filled again and send it off. Hopefully they won't ignore me this time. And I need to know how much I have paid in already, because I have only the roughest idea......