If you’ve not made enough National Insurance contributions to get a full basic state pension, you can top them up.
Many women lose out on a full basic state pension because they haven’t paid enough National Insurance contributions and in some cases, you can top up your NI without handing over a penny.
It can come as a big shock to people – and it’s mainly women who lose out – that they won’t get a full state pension when they retire. The amount you get is based on how much National Insurance you’ve paid (or been credited for if you’ve spent time bringing up your children, been out of work or acting as a carer). You can go back and make extra, voluntary National Insurance contributions to plug the gap, but many women don’t realise they can do this. And for one group of people, if you act by April 5th, you can top up your National Insurance for free.
New rules being introduced in April will make it easier for carers to qualify for a state pension.
Hundreds of thousands of carers don’t currently qualify for credits towards their state pension, but that’s about to change.
Many people – mostly women – fail to qualify for a full basic state pension because they don’t pay enough National Insurance contributions. And one of the biggest groups to lose out are carers. If you give up work to look after your children, you can effectively get credited for those years, but under the current system, it’s much harder for carers to qualify. They need to claim a benefit called Carer’s Allowance to trigger credits for National Insurance contributions, which many carers aren’t entitled to receive. But from April 6th, the rules will change and anyone caring for someone for 20 hours a week or more will get credits towards their state pension.
With several high profile companies weighed down by huge pension deficits, how are you protected if things go wrong?
If you’re a member of a final salary pension and your employer goes bust, you should be covered by a pensions safety net. But how does it work?
With so many headlines about company pension shortfalls, you might be wondering about how safe your own pension is. The first thing to say is that just because your scheme has a shortfall doesn't mean it's in trouble. But if you’ve joined a final salary pension scheme, it’s down to the Pension Protection Fund to pay compensation if your employer goes bust. In broad terms, if there's enough money in the company to pay everyone’s pension, the Pension Protection Fund doesn’t get involved. If not, it steps in. What does that mean?
