National Insurance Pension (State Pension)

Regular income from the state paid to retired people who have made contributions during their life. In the UK, the retirement age for men is 65 and for women is 60, although by 2020 it will be 65 for women too. To qualify individuals must have made full National Insurance (NI) contributions. Men must have worked for 44 years and women for 39 years, or have received a special waiver such as invalid care allowance. In April 1978 the government introduced another pension scheme (the State Earnings Related Pensions Scheme or SERPS) to provide a pension related to the earnings of employed people only. SERPS was replaced by the Second State Pension or S2P in April 2002.