Eligibility And How To Claim
3 Eligibility
| You must claim the new State Pension if you reach State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016.
The earliest you can get the basic State Pension is when you reach State Pension age.
To get the full basic State Pension you need a total of 30 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions or credits. This means you were either:
- working and paying National Insurance
- getting National Insurance Credits, for example for unemployment, sickness or as a parent or carer
- paying voluntary National Insurance contributions
If you have fewer than 30 qualifying years, your basic State Pension will be less than £141.85 per week but you might be able to top up by paying voluntary National Insurance contributions.
Get a State Pension statement to find out how many qualifying years you already have.
Married Or In A Civil Partnership
If you’re not eligible for a basic State Pension or you’re not getting the full amount, you might qualify for a ‘top up’ to £85.00 per week through your spouse’s or civil partner’s National Insurance contributions.
You can get the top up if both of you have reached State Pension age and either:
- your spouse or civil partner reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 and qualifies for some basic State Pension, even if they haven’t claimed it
- your spouse or civil partner reached State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016 and has at least one qualifying year of National Insurance contributions or credits from before 6 April 2016, even if they don’t qualify for any new State Pension or they haven’t claimed it
If your spouse or civil partner was born before 6 April 1950, the ‘top up’ doesn’t apply unless you’re a woman married to a man, or a woman married to a woman who legally changed their gender after your marriage began.
If you qualify for the ‘top up’ you should get it automatically.
If you’re not getting the ‘top up’ but think you qualify, contact the Pension Service.
You’ll get any Additional State Pension or Graduated Retirement Benefit based on your own contributions in addition to the ‘top up’.
You can no longer get the Adult Dependency Increase for someone who is looking after children or financially dependent on you. If you got it on or before 5 April 2010 you’ll keep it until 5 April 2020 provided you’re eligible until then.
You Don’t Qualify For A State Pension
If you’re not covered by any of these groups but want a State Pension you might be able to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions.
Men born before 1945 and women born before 1950
You need more qualifying years to get a full State Pension and a certain minimum number of years to get any State Pension at all.
Men born before 6 April 1945: Need a minimum of 44 qualifying years for a full State Pension and 11 qualifying years for any State Pension.
Women born before 6 April 1950: Need a minimum of 39 qualifying years for a full State Pension and 10 qualifying years for any State Pension.
How To Claim
You won’t get your State Pension automatically – you have to claim it. You should have received a letter 4 months before you reached State Pension age, telling you what to do.
If you haven’t received a letter you can phone the claim line. They’ll discuss with you what you need to do.
There are 4 ways to claim:
- online State Pension claims
- over the phone
- download the State Pension claim form and send it to your local pension centre
- claim from abroad including the Channel Islands
How to claim is different if you claim from Northern Ireland.
You want to keep working
You can claim your State Pension even if you carry on working.
Next – Increase The Amount You’ll Get >
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