A to Z
This A to Z list will point you in the right direction to finding more information about the entitlements or services you might receive once you are a pensioner. You can also look up pension options open to you if you are planning or reviewing your retirement income. Click on the relevant letter below.
For more options visit the A to Z of the Department for Work and Pensions website
Scheme providers: Financial services companies
wishing to register as a stakeholder pension scheme provider should obtain
an application pack.
Find out
more if you are a pension scheme provider
Security: Find out more about security. Also visit Home Energy Efficiency Scheme
Self-employed: If you are self-employed, you are not covered by the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) or the State Second Pension. It is important you look at your pension options and start planning for your retirement income as soon as possible. Read or print our Guide for the self-employed
SERPS: While you or your spouse have been working, you
may have been contributing to the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme
(SERPS) as well as to your basic State Pension. From April 2002, State
Second Pension reformed SERPS to provide a better additional State
Pension for low and moderate earners, and to extend access to certain
carers and long-term disabled people.
Find out more about inheriting
SERPS
Social Fund: The Social Fund provides lump sum payments,
grants and loans. Grants and loans from the Social fund are discretionary
and not for a standard amount. You may be able to get help from the Social
Fund for important costs that are hard to pay for out of your regular
income.
Find
out more about the Social Fund on the Jobcentre Plus website
Social Security Agency Northern Ireland: If you live in Northern Ireland find out more on the Department for Social Development website
Social security agreements: If you are going to another
country in the European Economic Area (EEA) or a country which has a social
security agreement with the United Kingdom (UK), you might be able to
get a benefit which you would not normally get abroad. Or you might be
able to get a benefit which that country provides. If you are coming from
one of these countries you might be able to get a benefit from that country
or a benefit the UK provides.
Find out about social security agreements with other countries on the
Department for Work and Pensions website
Social security office: Find your local pension centre
Social services: Social services can help you continue
to live independently in your own home. If appropriate, they can also
advise you on moving into sheltered housing or a residential home.
Find out more about social services
Stakeholder pensions: Stakeholder pensions are low charge
private pensions. These pensions must satisfy a number of minimum government
standards to ensure that they offer value for money and flexibility.
Find out more about stakeholder pensions
State Pension: You can build up rights
to the basic State Pension if you pay, are treated as having paid, or
are credited with, National Insurance contributions.
Find out more request a State
Pension Forecast
Find out more about State Pension
State Pension age: The State Pension age is 65 years old for men and 60 years old for women. However, the State Pension age for women is changing - it will rise gradually from age 60 to 65 from 2010 to 2020. The state pension age for both men and women is to increase from 65 to 68 between 2024 and 2046, with each change phased in over two consecutive years in each decade. The first increase, from 65 to 66, will be phased in between April 2024 and April 2026; the second, from 66 to 67, will be phased in between April 2034 and April 2036; and the third, from 67 to 68, between April 2044 and April 2046.
Your State Pension age is different from your retirement age. Your retirement
age, that is the age at which you choose to retire, is not bound by law,
whereas your State Pension age is the legal age at which you can start
claiming your State Pension.
Calculate your State Pension age
State Pension deferral: This means putting off claiming
your State Pension when you reach State Pension age, or choosing to stop
claiming it after having claimed it for a period. From 6 April 2005 you
may be able to get more extra weekly pension or the choice of a one-off
taxable lump sum payment when you do finally claim. This change is designed
to give you more choice in how and when you retire by making it more attractive
to delay taking your State Pension.
Find out more about State Pension
deferral
State Pension forecast: If you want to know how much State Pension
you can expect to receive (in today's money values), apply for a State Pension forecast.
Find out more about State Pension forecasts
State Second Pension: State Second
Pension (also known as additional State Pension) is paid in addition to
the basic State Pension. Until April 2002, it was usually known as SERPS
and depended solely on the National Insurance contributions you paid as
an employee. From April 2002, State Second Pension reformed SERPS to provide
a better additional State Pension for low and moderate earners, and to
extend access to certain carers and long-term disabled people.
Find out more about State Second Pension for carers
You may get an additional
State Pension even if you do not get any basic State Pension.
Find out more about additional
State Pension
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): Paid by your employer for up to 28 weeks if you were sick for at least 4 days in a row including weekends and Bank Holidays, employed when you became sick and earning enough, on average for it to be relevant for NI purposes. Find out more about Statutory Sick Pay on the Department for Work and Pensions website