If you are a resident of England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland and are looking to obtain a pension when you retire, you may be exciting about the money you will have access to. But because economic conditions around the world are shaky and having enough money after retirement is not always guaranteed, you may be wondering if you can actually depend on a pension when you receive one.
When Can You Claim Your Pension?
A large factor in whether you can actually depend on your pension relies on when you gain access to it. For those who have not reached state pension age, you won’t be able to rely on a pension because you will still be required to look for work.
In the past, once you reached the state pension age of 60 as a woman and 65 as a man, you were be able to start receiving a pension credit to top up your income without having to look for work.
But now, the state pension age is changing. If you are a woman born on or after 6 April 1950, or a man born on or after 6 April 1959, your state pension age adjusts based on your year of birth. So those born after this date might have to wait until they’re as old as 68 to claim their pension.
Will My Pension Last?
Whether or not you can depend on your pension also has a lot to do with whether it will actually last throughout your retirement. If you have access to full weekly rates (single person: £97.65, married couple: £195.30) then it may actually be something you can depend on.
But whether or not you actually receive the full pension depends on whether you’ve fulfilled the National Insurance (NI) contribution requirements. Also, it depends on how many “qualifying years” you have worked. If you have not worked 30 qualifying years then you won’t receive the full pension.
Knowing whether you can depend on your pension has a lot to do with whether you actually qualify for it based on years worked, age and NI contributions. So take time to explore this information so that you can take the steps to have the most dependable retirement pension possible.
This was a guest post by GoInsuranceRates.com, a site that provides daily updates on the latest auto insurance rates, finance information and more.
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