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Maximize Your UK State Pension Entitlement – Pending Legislation Changes

Due to pending UK legislation changes, which come into effect on 6^th April 2016, the new State Pension will be a regular payment from the UK government that you can claim if you reach State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016.

You’ll be able to get the new State Pension if  you are eligible and;

• a man born on or after 6 April 1951
• a woman born on or after 6 April 1953

Any ex-pat retiring after this date who has less than 10 complete UK Tax years’ National Insurance (NI) contributions, will NOT be eligible to claim a UK pension, although they have paid National Insurance (NI) payments throughout their years of employment.

Therefore, if you have ever worked in the UK and paid National Insurance you will have an entitlement to the UK State Pension, even if you are not a UK national.

Currently you may have never actually worked in the UK and still be entitled to the State Pension based on your partner’s National Insurance record.  However, under the new State pension rules your contributions will be based on your Own NI record only.

The amount of pension you receive depends on the number of National Insurance years you have been credited with.

At present, 30 years’ worth of credits entitles you to the full basic state pension (currently £113.10 a week), plus any additional entitlement through the earnings-related schemes, known as Graduated pension, SERPS or S2P you may also receive.

From 2016 there are proposals to increase the full new State Pension to no less than £148.40 per week.   The actual amount will be set in autumn 2015.However, you will require 35 years’ worth of National Insurance credits to achieve this.

With the new rules, to be eligible to qualify for any future pension, you will need to have at least 10 complete UK tax years, (April to April) of qualifying National Insurance (NI) contributions.  Your UK State Pension will be based on your UK National Insurance record.

However, you may be able to use your time abroad to make up the 10 qualifying years needed to get any new State Pension.

Expats who have moved overseas permanently will not be eligible to obtain a refund of their NI contributions paid.

We would advise any ex-pat who has missed out on paying NI contributions, due to being abroad consider paying additional voluntary contributions to maximize and top up their entitlement rather than lose this entitlement.

For more information go to www.gov.uk/new-state-pension

Colette Pieniazek
UK Pensions Manager
PTS Pension Transfer Specialists

written by:

McKinley Plowman