Pensions
Free Pensions and Benefits Check
Pension Tracing
Service
Help with Forms
Types of Pension
Pension income is taken into account in financial assessment for care services. It is important that you check that you are receiving all the pension income that you may be entitled to.
Free Pensions and Benefits Check
You can ask the Pension Service to do a free pensions and benefits check by calling their national helpline on
08456 060 265
or textphone 0800 731 7339
The helpline is available Monday to Friday, 8.00 am to 8.00 pm.
Home visits can be arranged if you have difficulty getting to your local Pension Service office.
Pension Tracing Service
If you have one or more old company or personal pensions that you do not know how to trace, the Pension Tracing Service may be able to help you get an up-to-date contact address for your pension scheme, free of charge.
To find out more, visit the Pension Tracing Service page on the Direct.gov website.
Help with Forms
If you require help with filling in pension claim forms, the Pension Service have Information Points where you can go to get help. Call the Pension Service National Helpline on
0845 606 0265
or textphone 0800 731 7339
to find out your local Information Point and to arrange an appointment.
The helpline is available Monday to Friday, 8.00 am to 8.00 pm.
If you cannot get to an Information Point, the Pension Service can arrange to send a local officer to your home to help complete the claim.
Types of
Pension
Pensions payable by the Department for Works and Pensions include:
State Pension
Additional State
Pension
Graduated Retirement
Benefit
Long Term
Incapacity Benefit Age Addition
Adult Dependency
Increase
Over 80 Pension
Find out about State Pensions on the Direct.gov website
There are two types of State Pension - basic and additional.
You get basic State Pension if you have paid National Insurance contributions for a certain number of years during your working life. You will also get basic State Pension if you are treated as having paid the right number of contributions. If you were a carer for at least one tax year and did not do any paid work, or your earnings were low, those years will be taken away from the number of years you needed to pay, or be treated as paying. You can also get basic State Pension if you have been credited with National Insurance contributions during your working life - for example, if you have been unemployed. However, you cannot get a basic State Pension based on credits alone. The amount of State Pension you get will depend on the number of years of contributions you have built up.
Additional State
Pension is pension you get paid that relates to how much
you have earned as an employee. Since April 2002, it has been known
as the State Second Pension. If you are a carer, or have a
long-term illness or disability, you may be treated as having
earnings at a set level for Additional State Pension purposes.
The Pensions Act 2007 makes a number of changes to the State Pension. These changes mainly affect people who reach State Pension age on or after 6 April 2010 (that is, women born on or after 6 April 1950 and men born on or after 6 April 1945). However, some of the changes could affect people who reach State Pension age before 6 April 2010.
If you were an employee during the period between April 1961 to April 1975 and paid graduated National Insurance contributions, you will get Graduated Retirement Benefit.
Long-term Incapacity Benefit Age Addition
This is an automatic and permanent increase to your State Pension. You will receive this if you were getting long-term Incapacity Benefit Age Addition at any time within the period of eight weeks ending on the day before you reach State Pension age.
This is an increase in your State Pension for a partner or someone who is looking after your children. This increase is dependent on a number of things such as your partner's income or earnings, if they have any. The Government has changed the law so that people will no longer be able to claim Adult Dependency Increases from 6 April 2010. Existing claims will, subject to the entitlement conditions, continue until 5 April 2020 at the latest.
If you are aged 80 or over and you are not entitled to a basic State Pension, or less than the rate of State Pension paid to married women based on their husband's National Insurance contributions, you can receive the over 80s Pension. To get it, you need to be living in England, Scotland or Wales and have been living in Great Britain for a total of 10 years or more in any continuous period of 20 years after you reached 60 years of age.
last updated 26/05/2010
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