PENSIONS DIVIDE

THE maximum basic state pension you can receive is £113.10 a week.

The amount depends on how much National Insurance you have paid – normally 30 years of contributions are needed, but if you are ill, disabled or unemployed you receive credits and you can also make voluntary contributions to fill gaps.

The basic state pension increases every year by the highest of three figures, the average percentage growth in wages or prices or 2.5 per cent. This is known as the triple lock.

You can defer your pension for weeks, months or even years and in return get a higher weekly payment.

For example, if you defer your pension a year, your payment will rise by 10.4 per cent – to nearly £125 a week. From April 6, 2016, there will be a new state pension. Those eligible are men born after April 6, 1951 and women born after April 6, 1953.

At today’s prices this is £148.40 a week. You will be still be able to defer the pension and boost the weekly payment but the rate paid is lower for the new scheme, working out at 5.8 per cent a year, making it about £157 a week.