penny farthing

still thinking this UK -buy- back- NIC- contributions -through.

If my basic UK State pension (payable to me in Canada at retirement) is frozen at the rate it was at when I left UK 18+ years ago then, even although I buy back all the missed years and irrespective of what this costs and if retire at 60 in Canada then I will STILL only receive that frozen 1990 amount payable for the remainder of my life. Correct?

So in summary if I could buy back the full amount of NIC contributions (30 years ) I would receive a full basic state pension BUT at the 1990 rate while retired in Canada, but,
if I retire in UK I would receive the FULL unfrozen basic UK state pension in accordance with my amount of NIC contributions.
Correct? any opinions? sigh....

JonboyE

No, that is not correct. When you reach retirement age you will a UK State pension at the then current rate. If you have less than 30 years of NI contributions you will get:

(Current amount of maximum state pension) times (number of years NI contributions [max 30]) divided by 30.

Once you start to receive the pension, if you continue to live in Canada, it is frozen. This means you do not get the annual cost of living increases other pensioners get.

To repeat, if you can buy back up to 30 years contributions, you will get the full UK state pension when you retire, at the rate it is on the day you retire, but you won't get any cost of living increases.