Flat Rate State Pension & COPE
Hucko
Member
The scenario is this - client with an SPA of 25/06/2023 and 43 qualifying years up to 2015/16, State Pension Statement shows £128.54 per week payable net of the Contracted Out Pension Equivalent of £108.91 per week. The question is: can he pay additional NI between now and SPA to bring the £128.54 per week up to £155.65 per week, i.e. the full flat-rate amount?? He is retiring from work next month, so will not be paying further NI via employment/self employment.
Comments
https://www.royallondon.com/Global/documents/GoodWithYourMoney/TOPPING-UP-YOUR-STATE-PENSION-GUIDE.pdf
Might help...
Chartered Financial Planner
Certified Financial Planner
Head of Technical at Paradigm Norton
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Request a National Insurance History document for them on the gov.uk website here and it will lay out the missed years he can contribute. The answer, roughly, is yes - so long as there are missed years to be repaid. Each contribution buys £4.45 per week.
Your best option is to call the pension team 0345 3000 168. They accept form 64/8 as authority OR if you have sent a BR19 and had the forecast sent to your office, they'll talk to you about your clients position exactly. That was helpful for me recently as while the client had 8 years he could repay, they suggested he only need do 7 to get full BSP.
You can do this up until the end of the tax year before the year they reach SPA, so you might even advise they wait.