The full basic State Pension is £169.50 per week. You may have to pay tax on your State Pension. If you're a man born on or after 6 April 1951 or a woman born on or after 6 April 1953, you'll get the new State Pension instead.
On face value the question of 'what is the average' is a simple one, the answer is £561 per week (£29,172 p.a.) for a retired couple and £267 per week (£13,884 p.a.) for a single retiree as per the most up to date Government Pensioners' Income figures.
The state pension cost £110.5bn in 2022-2023, just under half the total amount the government spends on benefits. The Office for Budget Responsibility expected this to grow to £124bn for 2023-2024.
You can only claim the State Pension if you have paid or been credited with UK National Insurance contributions (NICs) for at least ten years. If you have less than ten years of NICs, you may be able to use your time spent working abroad to still qualify for some State Pension.
The basic State Pension is currently £137.60 per week. This amount goes up each year. If you can get it, the full new State Pension amount is £179.60 a week. The money you may be able to get could be lower.
The maximum you can inherit depends on when your spouse or civil partner died. If they died before 6 October 2002, you can inherit up to 100% of their SERPS pension. If they died on or after 6 October 2002, the maximum SERPS pension and State Pension top up you can inherit depends on their date of birth.
With 40 years, the only reason you are not getting the full new state pension is because you have been contracted out. During that time you paid less NI as did your employer. In return your works pension makes up the difference. You can improve your state pension by either paying voluntary NI or getting NI Credits.
According to the ONS, the median average UK pension pot is £32,700, yet this varies significantly depending on age and pension type. For 25 to 34-year-olds, it's £9,300, but for 55 to 64-year-olds it rises to £107,300. The chart below shows the size of the average pension pot up to 2020.
To get the full basic State Pension you need a certain number of qualifying years of National Insurance. If you're a man you usually need: 30 qualifying years if you were born between 1945 and 1951. 44 qualifying years if you were born before 1945.
And although the average 55 to 73-year-old has almost £20,000 in savings, almost 38% of those in that age bracket have less than a grand tucked away. Across all age groups, a quarter of UK adults (11.5m people) have less than £100 in their savings accounts, with one in six people having no savings at all.
The latest figures show that a single person will need: £14,400 per year for a minimum retirement. £31,300 per year for a moderate retirement. £43,100 per year for a comfortable retirement.
The median average salary for all workers (full-time, part-time, male and female) in the UK in 2023 was £29,669 (£27,756 in 2022 and £25,971 in 2021). The mean average salary for all workers (full-time, part-time, male and female) in the UK in 2023 was £35,404 (£33,402 in 2022 and £31,447 in 2021).
The full basic State Pension you can get is £169.50 per week. You need 30 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions to get the full amount. You'll still get something if you have at least 1 qualifying year, but it'll be less than the full amount.
If you have less than 10 years NI contributions, you won't receive any State Pension. If the number of years you have been contributing for is between 10 and 35 years then the amount you receive will be proportionate to the number of years you have been contributing.
Is 100k in savings a lot in the UK? Yes, it is.
£300k in a pension isn't a huge amount to retire on at the fairly young age of 60, but it's possible for certain lifestyles depending on how your pension fund performs while you're retired and how much you need to live on.
Let's say you consider yourself the typical retiree. Between you and your spouse, you currently have an annual income of $120,000. Based on the 80% principle, you can expect to need about $96,000 in annual income after you retire, which is $8,000 per month.
Claim State Pension abroad. You can claim State Pension abroad if you've paid enough UK National Insurance contributions to qualify. You might also be eligible if you have lived or worked abroad. Get a State Pension forecast if you need to find out how much State Pension you may get.
If you reach pensionable age and are still living overseas your NHS pension will either, be paid into your UK bank account in Sterling, or into your local bank account where you are living, where it would be paid in the currency of that country or territory – the latter is possible in most cases.
A widow(er) is eligible to receive benefits if she or he is at least age 60. If a widow(er) remarries before age 60, she or he forfeits the benefit and, therefore, faces a marriage penalty. Under current law, there is no penalty if the remarriage occurs at 60 years of age or later.
Surviving spouse, at full retirement age or older, generally gets 100% of the worker's basic benefit amount. Surviving spouse, age 60 or older, but under full retirement age, gets between 71% and 99% of the worker's basic benefit amount.
You may inherit part of or all of your partner's extra State Pension or lump sum if: they died while they were deferring their State Pension (before claiming) or they had started claiming it after deferring. they reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016. you were married or in the civil partnership when they died.