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Pension Calculation
For 7 months I have been trying to get the Department for pensions to explain to me why they have only allowed me 27/35 of the full pension when for years and years according to their own records I was entitled to 31/35. I have appealed but am being ignored!
I was in full time employment with a UK bank for 27 years, and presumably this is where they get the 27 years of National Insurance. Prior to working for the Bank I was 3 years at Leeds University, and before I started at University I worked for 5 months at a factory staightening springs, between finishing A levels and going to University. I also worked one of the Summer vacs at the same factory as a general dogsbody. I took a voluntary severance package from the Bank and was on job seekers allowance for 8 months before emigrating.
Do the years I spent at University give me 3 years towards pension entitlement and if not, does 5 months work in a tax year entitle me instead?
Many thanks for any help
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Thanks - Brainiac - I am noy entitled to pension credit as I live abroad
For two tax years whilst at University I worked for 5 months, so even if University doesn't count, I would have thought that I was entitled to 29 years
I shall go back to the Government website to see which years are missing.
Thanks everyone
The other thing is what you were paid at the factory. If your pay was below the lower limit for NI you would not receive anything. If you got paid above the lower limit but up to£x you would not pay contributions but would have received credits.
Assuming this was the same back in 'the day' you would need to know what those figures were.
They don't make it easy.
You do not get NI credits as a student unless you are unable to work because you are ill or caring for somebody.
To make a year where you only worked part of the time a “qualifying year”, generally speaking you must have earned at least 52 times the weekly “Lower Earnings Limit” (LEL). The weekly LEL for the 2024/25 tax year is £123. This means in this year a worker needs to have earned at least £6,396 to make it a qualifying year. You will have to find out what the LEL was in the year when you worked five months and compare it to your earnings for that year.
Was your scheme contracted out for maybe 3 of those years? It may be that for those claimimg overseas the treatemnt of these years is different. The guidance on the HMRC site regarding contracyed out is confusing (saying some of your pension is already included in the guaranteed minimum penion). HMRC has changed the notes several times in the last year but it's still ambiguous IMO- I won't be fully convinced until I start to receive my state pension this summer.