Who said pensions are boring? Here are ten facts you didn't know about the State Pension. Feel free to add any of your own in the comments box below:
1 - The current Basic State Pension is a 'contribution based' benefit and depends on an individual's National Insurance (NI) contribution history.
2 - The current full pension payable is £97.65 per week.
3 - An 'Age Addition' was introduced in 1971, with 25p per week added to the State Pension for people aged 80 or over. It remains at this level.
4 - The Basic State Pension is indexed each year for those pensioners living in the UK and 535,000 others who live abroad in countries with a qualifying Social Security Agreement.
5 - Approximately 525,000 pensioners living in countries without an agreement have their pensions frozen at the rate at which they were first paid.
6 - The current 'State Pension age' (SPA) is between 60 years 3 months and 60 years 4 months for women and is 65 years for a man.
7 - It is possible to defer claiming the State Pension at pension age. If deferred the pension will be enhanced by 1% for every 5 weeks that the pension is not claimed or you can receive a lump sum instead. The lump sum is the amount not claimed plus interest at 2% over the Bank of England's base rate.
8 - There are over 12 million people in the UK who are of State Pension age.
9 - The life expectancy of someone aged 65 today is 88 for women and 86 for men.
10 -The Government has announced that a higher flat rate pension is to be introduced within the next few years which will put an end to the different tiers of pension and benefits in the current system. This new flat rate will only be available to new pensioners at the time of introduction with existing pensioners carrying on with their current arrangements.
Image by Save Shayne. (flickr)
