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UK State Pension Is the triple lock sustainable?   First of all, what is the “triple lock”? The triple lock was a formula introduced in 2010 to determine annual increases in the UK state pension. Basically, it is a simple formula with the increase consisting of the higher of: Rate of CPI Rate of Average…

­­UK State Pension – “Gaps” on your NI record This article will help you understand: Identifying Gaps on your NI record Paying Voluntary NI Contributions for previous years Avail of strong financial payback in retirement Brexit and your UK State Pension A recent exchange with a client, and it is one I probably have taken…

UK State Pension Increases 2019/20   The state pension rates for 2019/20 have been announced. From April 2020 the new rates of UK state pension are: Old state pension:           rate of £129.20 per week increases to £134.25 New state pension:         rate of £168.60 per week increases to £175.20 These increases fall under the “triple lock”…

One of the main attractions of the UK state pension is the underlying commitment to annual increases. The “triple lock”, as the system for annual reviews of the UK state pension is more commonly known, was introduced by the Cameron government in 2010 and essentially means that the UK state pension increases by the higher…

Remember, as it stands, your access to UK state pension rights is unaffected by Brexit, directly at least. This has been agreed in early 2019 between the British and Irish governments in a bilateral agreement. However, the Law of Unintended Consequences applies to Brexit too.   Press commentary suggests that the traditionally efficient functioning of…

Class 2 Voluntary NI Contributions All the examples on voluntary contributions on this website cite the standard Class 3 voluntary national insurance contribution, the rate for which varies each year but for example, for 2019/20 it is £780.00. It is also possible people can qualify for the much cheaper Class 2 voluntary contribution. These contributions…

The annual increase to the UK state pension has been applied from 6 April 2019. The rates have been increased as follows: – ‘Old’ UK state pension: increases from £125.95pw to £129.20pw – ‘New’ UK state pension: increases from £164.35pw to £168.60pw Effectively this is an increase of 2.6% which compares favourably to the 1.9%…

There’s a relief! An agreement concluded between the UK and Irish governments this month (February 2019) reaffirms that existing cross-border social security benefits, including the UK state pension among other things, will continue after Brexit. This agreement was concluded under the auspices of the CTA (Common Travel Area) regulations so, it uniquely applies to Irish…