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13 April 2011
This is a contributory benefit which is paid to you when you reach retirement age. Your pension can be based on National Insurance contributions which you have paid or those paid by your spouse or civil partner.
You may be credited with contributions which will help you towards qualifying for your state pension if you are claiming:
If you are caring for someone you can be given credits which can help you to qualify for state pension. These credits are available under:
Carer’s allowance - You will be credited with a Class 1 contribution for each week in which you are paid carer’s allowance, or in which you would be paid carer’s allowance were you not receiving a bereavement benefit instead. Carer’s allowance credits count for any benefit.
Carer's credit – From 6.4.10, you can get a Class 3 credit to help build up qualifying years for basic state pension,additional state pension and bereavement benefits, for each week in which you care for one or more disabled people for a total of 20 hours or more per week. Each person you care for must receive:
Where a person being cared for does not receive an appropriate qualifying benefit you can still get carer’s credit if you supply a Care Certificate. This will need to be signed by a health or social care professional (HSCP).
Before 6.4.10 you could get similar credits under the home responsibilities protection (HRP). If you reach state pension age on or after 6.4.10, any years of HRP will be converted into a qualifying year of credits.
You can find out about the retirement pension scheme in more detail in Disability Rights UK's Disability Rights Handbook, available at www.disabilityalliance.org/drh36.htm.
You might also be interested in our Factsheet F12 - pension credit.
The DirectGov website has the following information:
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