I'll just have to wait to see what my final amount is. The last pension statement I had was about this time last year and listed the basic amount plus some other low value stuff which came out at £137 I was surprised to an amount included for Graduated Pension. That pulled up some memories of long ago. There was the usual disclaimer that it all depended on my circumstances at pension age and how forecast amounts could be higher or lower than actual. My pension situation got quite complicated. In the financial crash my US and Japanese pension provisions got pretty much wiped out.
Not that bad an amount given that you spent a lot of time outside the UK, but still not great as you say, my last assessment 2 years ago was about £138 I expect my maximum entitlement will be reached in this coming few months when the rules change so maybe 142 ish. I'll need to get another projection done, it is notable that they can no longer do an assessment online, essentially this reflects the incredibly complex nature of the new calculation, I suspect they will now be paying an army of civil servants to do the calculation and to check the results of each stage that comes out of the computers. If they had a working algorithm that was accurate they would be using it and we would have the online projections that used to exist for the old system, but clearly they don't. Sorry to hear about what happened to your private pensions Peter, we are all one disaster away from losing those
They have a rather complicated way of paying you too. The actual day of the week your pension gets paid depends on the last two numbers of you NI number. For some unfathomable reason. Here's what the webpage States:- "Your first payment is made at the end of the first full week after you reach State Pension age. It won’t include the time between reaching State Pension age and your normal payment day if that’s less than one week. Example You reach State Pension age on Monday 16 December 2013 and your first payday is a Friday. The first full week ending on a Friday after the Monday you reached State Pension age is Saturday 21 December to Friday 27 December. You won’t be paid between 16 December and 21 December because this is less than one week. The basic State Pension is usually paid every 4 weeks into an account of your choice. You’re paid ‘in arrears’, ie you’re paid for the last 4 weeks, not for the coming 4 weeks.
Thanks. It was quite some time ago and while they weren't worth a lot I was pretty devastated at the time as they cost quite a lot. Would have been nice but well that's life and as you get older you tend to look more to what you have rather than what might have been. Still on the positive side I was able to top up nearly all my missing contribution years. I'm not sure if that's permitted anymore especially with the new pension.
It is but it is often pointless given the complex new rules, you can end up paying the government for nothing.
