The State Pension

If you’ve been making National Insurance contributions (NICs) throughout your working life, you could be entitled to the State Pension.

Most people will be entitled to a State Pension when they come to retire. It’s an amount of money paid to you by the government when you reach your State Pension age (SPA), and the amount you’ll receive is based upon your NICs.

The State Pension is an important factor when it comes to planning your retirement, although it shouldn’t be solely relied on as your only source of income as it’s unlikely that it’ll fund the lifestyle you want without additional income as well.

The SPA is the earliest you can draw your state pension. The current full State Pension rate is £179.60 (per week) for the 2021/22 tax year. To check how much you might receive, visit www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

The date you reach SPA depends on when you were born. Under current rules:

• Men born before 6 December 1953 retain their SPA of 65
• Women born before 6 April 1950 retain their SPA of 60
• Women born on or after 6 April 1950 but before 6 December 1953 will have an SPA between 60 and 65
• Men and women born on or after 6 December 1953 but before 6 October 1954 will have an SPA between 65 and 66
• Men and women born on or after 6 October 1954 but before 6 April 1960 will have an SPA of 66
• Increases from 66 to 67 and then to 68 will affect men and women born on or after 6 April 1960
• The government is planning further increases, which will raise the SPA from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028

The SPA will be kept under review, which means that it could change again in the future, depending on different factors, such as changes in life expectancy.

When you reach your SPA, you’re given the option to either start receiving your income from the government or you can wait longer for the payments if you wish. If you do decide to do this, then the amount you receive will increase.

Why not visit www.gov.uk/state-pension-age to check your SPA?