Hi

There are new pensions laws now. Each person can be affected differently and so you will have to go through the website for your particular situation: (If you are interested)

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension there is a step by step guide here.

It could well be that the retirement age has increased (again perhaps) and the qualifying years have gone up to 35 from 30. It could be that your retirement age, when you can get the benefits has gone up 2 years to 67, but to get the full pension you have to put in 5 years more!! Makes sense

Also there may be rules that affect you re your eligibility to pay 'voluntary NIC's' - if you aren't working there (eg a Spanish expat) but want to top it up - as I have done previously.

Only governments can make retrospective changes to the rules. Imagine signing a contract in a business deal and after a few years someone comes along and says the contract is still valid, but Im changing the rules!

Oh well UK LTD need the dosh I suppose

Jon

Re you sure these are retrospective, they usually arent, if they were and you had retired 2 years ago with 30 yrs paying in will you suddenly find you don't have a full pension, unless you pay 5 more years? These new rules apply only to those retiring AFTER the implementation date, OK, if you have 31 years so far, and are not yet at retirement age, you will have to make it to 35 years. The only epople really affected are thos who haven't got the 35 years in but will reach the new retirement age before they do, they will have to pay the extra years.

What you say is true however we made the contract with the government many years ago when we started making our NI contributions and were told and planned for a pension at 65 men 60 women. The truth is simple after the mess following 2007/2008 they simply need to save money. They say increasing life expectancy etc mmmm so has it just suddenly started rising? Or has it been happening over decades and successive governments either failed to do anything possibly because they knew it would be unpopular with the voter. Also there are still a great number that don't even make 70 it,s very much down to chance.
The current government have been the ones to actually have to do something as the pot was drained, however they also mention very often the need to plan for retirement. You say that yes it only applies to those retiring after the implementation date, well as it is only 2 years hence then not really much time for people nearing retirement to plan. Remember it was Gordon Brown that reduced qualyfying years from 44 men and 39 women to 30. So people may well have planned to retire early having sufficient qualifying years at say early 50 expecting to receive state pension at 65. Some will have planned and put into action retiring to Spain believing that at 65 their pension was assured. Now only a few years later that has been turned on it's head as they will need to have 35 years to qualify and won't get their pension until age 67. Personally I accept that there may well be a need to adjust contributions and age of drawing pension but feel this has been brought in too quickly for those near retirement age (over 50) to make adjustments to what they have planned and in many cases taken action on i.e. becoming expats. Mind call me lucky but because my birthday is 6 Feb rather than 5 Feb I loose out on 5 months of state pension

Another interesting point reading the link is if you have been contracted out i.e. as in most public sector/forces. They will have a reduced starting point for the new pension as they have paid a very slightly lower NI contribution during their 35 contributing years under the pre 2016 rules. However as in many cases they will have contributed far more than 35 years it doesn't seem they will get any credit for the extra years? So will just have to accept that they get the deduction.

Thanks Bob... yep well over 50 as well. I have yet to determine if we can pay voluntary NICs as well, in the new scheme (first look no, unless you have been wrongly imprisoned!) and also the tax office said they were thinking of offering a deal/'amnesty' to help us, so that we could go back 10 years and pay voluntary NIC's for missed years. Like they did some time ago (when I paid up) .. of course the earlier NICs are cheaper than the later ones, so we could pay less for those years.

Should have been banged up On Her Majesty's Service after all

Jon

I will have 42 qualifying years but as contracted out for 40 of them Forces/police then will get a lower starting point although way it reads will not be below current state pension. As you say though financially may have been better serving time in HMP rather than serving HM lol. Annoying that we had made our plans with me getting full pension at 65 and wife at 60. Not too bad for me as only get it 5 months later but wife has to wait 6 years extra and she is 56 now, just too quick a change in my view. But as always onwards and upwards.

We are in a similar position we had been working towards next year but all the changes have put that back which means full retirement is off the agenda for the moment.

I and my wife are in the same boat. We stopped working in 2007 with 30 years behind us (just like the rules stipulated if you wanted a full pension).

We had planned to receive our state pension at 60 and 65 as per normal.

Now we find that we need 35 years of paying in and can't take anything until I am 67 and my wife 62(?).

I enquired about paying the difference and was told it wasn't possible and that I should have planned better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes seems like we should have all planned by investing in a crystal ball.

My wife for the last 2 years has been trying to find out from them if she has sufficient years to qualify for full pension. They kept sending letters saying yes you have the full 30 Qualifying years. She phoned and tried to explain that there were changes coming, yes they said but until they are in force we can only quote up to 30 years, once it is changed and in force we will be able to tell if you have sufficient to qualify! Now how does one actually plan with that information?

A friend of ours got stung pretty badly.
He 'retired' to Spain over 10 years ago.

A few years ago, when it was 44 years to qualify for a full state pension, he decided to top up the missing years - cost him over two thousand pounds.

That was just before the announcement that the number of years was going down to 30!

He tried to get a refund without success.

That would be because the money he put in over the top had already been spent to pay someone who never paid a penny into the pot's pension. Beggars me why they still call it National Insurance because if a insurance man tried to flog it to you no doubt you would tell him where to go.

Just to be clear, the increase for women from 60 to 65, which started in 2010, was actually legislated for in the Pensions Act 1995. The Pensions Act 2007 increased pension age to 66 by 2026. The coalition brought forward the recent changes in 2011. So although the recent changes for men were brought forward, the equalisation at 65 has been planned for many years.

I am not saying any different the point for my wife was the fiasco of one minute she had enough qualifying years then she didn't and no one could or would tell her how many years she needed to work on to have sufficient qualifying years. I also said that whenthe likes of most of us started paying our NI contribution we were told one thing, as we approach that point in life it has changed.

By the way the 95 act only sought to equalise pension age of women to 65 by 2020 then this government in 2011 increased it again beyond 65 for many.