State Pension currently provides essential financial support for 12.5 million older people across the UK, including some 981,399 living in Scotland. This regular payment is available for those who have reached the UK Government’s eligible retirement age, which is now 66 for both men and women, and have paid at least 10 years’ of National Insurance contributions.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) delivers the contributory benefit and recently shared that the latest forecasts indicate that 738,300 older people are set to receive their State Pension for the first time in the 2022/23 financial year. However, many people approaching the official retirement age may not be aware that the money is not paid automatically and needs to be claimed, or they could miss out on payments of up to £185.15 every week.
You should receive a letter no later than two months before you reach State Pension age, telling you what to do. It gives you the choice of claiming it or deferring it, if you defer you do no need to do anything.
Which means, unless you respond to the letter confirming that you want to start claiming State Pension, you will not receive any payments as the DWP will interpret no response as a wish to defer.
If you do not receive the letter, there are several ways to make a claim, something new Pensions Minister, Alex Burghart, recently explained.
He said: “If a customer’s State Pension age is pre 6th April 2016 they can download a BR1 claim form from Gov.uk.
“For customers whose State Pension Age is after 6th April 2016 they can use the online ‘Get Your State Pension’ (GySP) digital service to complete their claim.”
He continued: “Customers who do not receive an invitation to claim their State Pension can use the online service to request a claim invitation to be sent to them. A claim invitation code can be used for up to 15 months from being issued.”
Mr Burghart also shared that if someone does not want to - or has no access to - the online service, and requires a clerical claim form to complete, this can be obtained by contacting the new claims phone line at the Pension Service on 0800 731 7898 - more details here.
He added: “Claims can be made by telephone where the claim may be gathered and processed while the customer is on the phone. If the customer requires an accessible version of the form that can also be provided on request.”
To keep up to date with the latest State Pension news, join our Money Saving Scotland Facebook page here, or subscribe to our newsletter which goes out three times each week - sign up here.
READ NEXT
People of State Pension age to get £300 on top of Winter Fuel Payment from next month
New petition calls for State Pension age to be frozen at 66 for men and women
Martin Lewis urges people to claim State Pension top-up worth thousands
New call for basic State Pension payments to increase from £141 to £185 per week
Married couples over State Pension age could be due up to £278 each week from DWP
