Qualifying For A State Pension

The Coalition Government has changed the age rules for qualification for the state pension. Currently the state pension age is 60 for women and 65 for men. The changes announced in 2010 mean that retirement age for women will be equalised with that for men at 65 by 2018 and both will increase to 66 by 2020.
These changes, which affect those born after 6 April 1953, have been brought about by the Government's intention to reduce the welfare bill, it is expected that these changes will mean that more than five million people will receive state pension later than previously expected.

Age today	Age pension received
60 yrs	60 yrs 6m
59 yrs 6m	61 yrs
59 yrs	61 yrs 6m
58 yrs 6m	62 yrs
58 yrs	62 yrs 6m
57 yrs 6m	63 yrs
57 yrs 3m	63 yrs 9m
57 yrs	64 yrs 6m
56 yrs 9m	65 yrs 3m
56 yrs 6m or under	66 yrs

The conditions for getting the state pension were amended by the Pensions Act 2007 and mainly affected people reaching state pension age on or after 6 April 2010. The changes introduced partly as a result of the fact that less than 25% of women were entitled to a full state pension.

From 6 April 2010 the number of qualifying years for a full basic state pension is reduced to 30. A qualifying year is each tax year in which enough national insurance was paid or treated as paid or credited as contributed. Each qualifying year is worth 1/30th of the full basic state pension.

Those with very few qualifying years will be able to secure some basic state pension.

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