General Information

State Pensions

The State provides a Basic State Pension, payable from your State Pension Age, that is based on the National Insurance contributions you have paid - or been credited with - during your working life. The Basic State Pension is payable in addition to any company pensions you may have.

In addition to the Basic State Pension, some Additional Pension may be payable depending on whether you have been contracted-in or contracted-out of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme and/or the State Second Pension.

A number of changes to the State Pension recently, you can find details here.

Current employees - Each year, the Trustee applies to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for details of your state pension and this is included in your annual Pension Benefit Statement. The information that will be provided to them is:

• Surname or family name
• Forenames
• Sex
• Date of birth
• National Insurance number.

The DWP will then be able to tell us about:

• The state pension you have earned so far;
• What your state pension is likely to be when you retire; and
• The age at which you can receive your state retirement pension.

At any time you can use this calculator to find out what your personal State Pension Age is.

Details of your state pension are obtained for your information and are only used for inclusion in your annual Pension Benefit Statement. If you don't want to receive this information in your Statement, you should send a note to the pensions Helpdesk.

Deferred members and Retirees under State Pension Age - If you would like to check your National Insurance record for your state pension, the DWP offers a ‘Retirement Pension Forecast’; for details see http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/index.htm and click on ‘I am approaching retirement’.