Let’s get a State Pension forecast!

I promised to post regular updates on my #pensionadventure. I'm diving into my own pension records to find out how much pension I've got, where it is and what I might be able to do with it.

Pretty much every pension newsletter I've ever written has said something like 'Find out how much State Pension you might get by asking for a State Pension forecast'. But I'd never done it myself until now.

So here it is: a blow-by-blow account of getting a State Pension forecast.

Boring-but-necessary disclaimer. I'm not a financial adviser and no-one should assume anything I write in my blog is financial advice. I hope these 'pension adventure' blog posts are useful, but they only reflect my experience of looking into my pension.

1. Search and start

Search for Check State Pension to go straight to the Check your State Pension forecast page of the Government's gov.uk website.

Clicking the BIG GREEN BUTTON saying Start now goes to a Prove your identity page. There are four options.

• Sign in with a Government Gateway account.

• Sign in with Gov.uk Verify.

• Sign in with an ID scheme from another European country.

• Create an account with either Government Gateway or Gov.uk Verify.

Gateway and Verify – what's the difference?

Government Gateway is the 'old' HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) system.

Verify is the 'new' Government system. In theory it's supposed to be more secure but there seem to be ongoing problems with it, and not everyone can use it. So the two systems are running side by side at the moment.

I decided to try both of them.

• Gateway is fairly easy and doesn't take long.

• Verify is complicated, takes forever and I nearly failed. If I can summon the energy, I might write another blog post about it in the future …

2. Create an account

After clicking on Create a Government Gateway account I went to Create sign in details artfully hidden below the big green Sign In button (follow the arrow in the picture) and put in my email address.

Then I went to my email inbox to find an email with the code. Copy code from email, put it into box provided, click Confirm, get message saying Email address confirmed. Phew! So far so good ...

Continue. Full name, create a password. Passwords can't include special characters. Then I have to create a recovery word, which can't include numbers or special characters.

And there’s my Government Gateway ID!

A looooooooooong number.

I made sure to stash the email carefully so I could find it again.

Then there’s another layer of security – access codes. You can get these by text message, voice call or authentication app. I chose text message, confirmed I have a UK mobile, then entered my mobile number to receive a 6-digit access code. I had to put in the access code to log into my Government Gateway account. I'll need to do this every time.

3. Prove your identity

Now I see Check your State Pension.

After selecting Continue I sign into my Government Gateway account using my long user ID and password, get sent a text with a 6-digit code and put this in. There's an option to Remember me for 7 days which I don't take.

Then I answer some security questions to confirm info HMRC already have about me. Name, National Insurance number, date of birth.

There are three options for identifying me: payslips, UK Passport or P60. Since the nearest available document is my passport, I go and fish it out. I then have to agree HMRC can share my details with HM Passport Office.

I put in my passport number, my full name and the expiry date of my passport.

4. The answer

And here it is: my State Pension forecast!

It’s good news. I should get the full amount as long as I carry on paying National Insurance contributions. Which I was going to anyway.

From here I can look at my National Insurance records, so I do. It says I was in a contracted-out pension scheme for a while, so I have a Contracted Out Pension Equivalent.

Contracted what?

Contracting out is something a lot of pension schemes used to do. It was a kind of exchange. There were two kinds: one for workplace pensions and one for personal pensions.

If you were in a contracted-out workplace pension, you and your employer paid lower National Insurance contributions. As a result you didn't build up part of the State Pension, but the pension scheme promised to pay you at least as much as the missing State Pension. This is your Contracted Out Pension Equivalent. (You could also contract out using a personal pension, where you paid full-rate National insurance contributions but the Government put some of it into your personal pension for you - so you built up a personal pension pot instead of part of the State Pension.)

Contracting out stopped in 2016.

5. Check your State Pension age

State Pension age - the age you can get your State Pension from - keeps changing. While I’m here, I’m going to check what mine is. Fortunately this is much quicker!

Search: Check State Pension age.

Big green Start Now button.

You can choose State Pension age or bus-pass age. I'll go with State Pension age for now.

Put in date of birth and whether I'm a man or a woman.

And there it is – my State Pension age and the date I'll reach it.

6. Ways to make your State Pension better

You might be able to get more State Pension, although this may not be true for everyone.

Put it off

You don't have to claim your State Pension at your State Pension age. If you put off claiming it until later, you might get more when you do claim it. I'll remember that when the time comes!

Pay missing National Insurance contributions

You need 35 qualifying years – years when you paid the full rate of National Insurance contributions, or received National Insurance credits (which you get if you're not working but claiming some benefits) to get the full amount of State Pension. If you haven't got enough qualifying years you can pay Voluntary Class 3 contributions to get more State Pension.

• Search for Pay Voluntary Class 3 National Insurance.

• Select the big green Start now button.

If you go to Choose to pay by direct debit you can download a useful form, CA6053. This has lots more information about voluntary National Insurance contributions, including how to work out if you qualify.

You can only pay voluntary National Insurance contributions to cover the past six years.

The adventure continues …

I hope this inspires you to get your own State Pension forecast. Remember: the more you know about your pension, the better prepared you are for the future. #LoveYourPension #PensionHowTo

Next time … the great pension hunt!