The State Pension
The State Pension is a regular payment from the government most people can claim when they reach their State Pension age. You may be entitled to this in addition to what you receive from the Schroders Retirement Benefits Scheme (the Scheme).
What’s the State Pension age (SPA)?
This is the earliest age you can claim your State Pension. It’s not the same as your retirement age from our Scheme and varies according to the year you were born:
- If you were born before 6 April 1978 your SPA is somewhere between 65 and 68
- If you were born after 5 April 1978 your SPA will be 68
You can check your SPA today. Please be aware that his could change in the future.
How much will you get?
The amount you receive is dependent on your National Insurance (NI) record. You need to have made NI contributions for a minimum of 10 years to receive any State Pension, and 35 years to qualify for the full amount. The State Pension usually increases at the start of each tax year and is not taxed, but it will use up some of your tax-free personal allowance. You can check how much you might get today by getting a State Pension forecast.
The current full State Pension is £10,600 a year.
If you have gaps in your NI record
You may have gaps in your NI record if you didn’t pay NI contributions. This could be because you were employed but had low earnings, you were living or working outside the UK, or you were self-employed but didn’t pay contributions because of small profits. These gaps could mean that you won’t have enough years of NI contributions to get some or all of the State Pension or qualify for some benefits.
You can check your NI record to find out:
If you have any gaps
If you’re eligible to pay voluntary contributions
How much it’ll cost
If you were a member of the defined benefit section of the Scheme…
…you were contracted-out of something called the State Second Pension Scheme (S2P). This means the Scheme had to guarantee a minimum level of benefits. As a result, you and Schroders paid lower rates of NI contributions and the Scheme satisfied a ‘quality of benefits’ test set by the government.