Barclays

State pensions

If you've paid or been credited with UK National Insurance (NI) contributions throughout your working life, you may be entitled to receive a state pension once you have reached the state pension age.

This is currently set at 65 for men. For women it is currently age 60 but is being increased in increments to age 65 between 6 April 2010 and 6 April 2020. Our understanding is that new proposals in the Pensions Bill 2011 intend:

• to accelerate the increase in the state pension age for women to age 65 so that it is increased to 65 by November 2018*
• to bring forward the next phased increase so that the State Pension age for both men and women will increase to 66 between December 2018 and April 2020*.

* The Government are currently considering the timetable for the future increases to state pension age from 66 to 68 and will bring forward proposals in due course.

• You can find out what your state pension age will be by using The Pension Service's online pension age calculator. The Pension Service is part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

However, the basic state pension is exactly that: basic. The full amount is just £102.15 (2011/12) a week for a single person and £163.35 (2011/12) a week for a couple, based on a husband's contributions (or £204.30 if both have paid full contributions). Depending on your circumstances, you may not receive the full amount.

• You can also ask The Pension Service for a forecast of how much your State Pension will be when you reach state pension age - by post, telephone or online - and most people can find out online. For details of how to do this, see their pension forecast webpage.

State Second Pension

You may also be entitled to an additional state pension. This is called the State Second Pension (S2P), which was previously known as the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS).

The S2P reformed SERPS to provide a more generous payment to low and moderate earners and extend access to include certain carers and people with long-term illness or disability.

Your employer's occupational scheme or your stakeholder or personal pension may allow you to contract out of S2P. However, you should note that our current position is to recommend that individuals should not contract out of S2P. If you are currently contracted out you should seriously reconsider your position and whether it would be beneficial for you to contract back into S2P, and we can help you with this. The Government has confirmed that contracting out under both money purchase occupational and personal pension schemes will be abolished from April 2012. Anyone contracted out at that time will automatically be contracted back in to S2P. The benefits built up by contracting out are known as "protected rights". Currently there are restrictions on how protected rights can be used but these restrictions are to be removed as from 6 April 2012 and there will be no distinction between protected rights and non-protected rights.

Increasing your pension pot

For many people, the state pensions aren't enough to allow them to achieve their retirement goals. Barclays can help you develop a wealth accumulation plan that will allow you to save towards your own retirement, giving you more opportunities to lead the life you want when you retire.

Find out more about planning for your retirement

To learn more how Barclays could help you, please contact us and we'll be in touch as soon as possible.

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