I am disabled and unable to work, can I build up a state pension? STEVE WEBB answers

I am over 50 years old and had to stop working eight years ago due to a serious illness.

I was lucky enough to be able to take advantage of my work pension so I could retire early due to permanent disability.

However, my pension is small because I worked part-time while my children were in school.

I don’t qualify for any benefits as my pension is just over the limit, so I live entirely on my pension, which is a challenge.

I have looked at my state pension and I have 32 years of qualifying but I am still a few years away from reaching full pension which would obviously help me enormously.

So I would like to know if there is any way to get credits as I know if you receive benefits for being too sick to work you may qualify for them but as far as I can see there is no way to claim credits if you do not qualify for benefits but are not able to work.

I have copies of my certificate from the occupational health doctors stating that I will still be unfit to work due to my illness as it is irreversible, so proving this is not a problem.

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Steve Webb answers: Avoiding gaps in your National Insurance (NI) record can make a big difference to your state pension entitlement.

Taking just one year’s worth of credits will typically add more than £325 a year (in today’s money) to your eventual state pension.

In this column I will explain how you, and potentially many thousands of people in your position, can get the loans you need.

The rules about who can and cannot get credits are complex, and it is vitally important that people claim the “right” benefits if they want to get the credits they may be entitled to.

When someone is unable to work due to ill health or disability, they should certainly consider claiming Personal Independent Payment (PIP) as a valuable supplement to their weekly income.

But it’s very important to note that getting PIP (and its predecessor benefit, Daily Living Disability Benefit) *does not* generate a credit toward your state pension record.

Normally, there would be two ways for someone who is unable to work to get NI credit: applying for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit (UC).

However, you have indicated that you do not believe you would actually qualify for any of the benefits, so you do not know what to do.

There are potentially three main reasons why someone might be too sick to work but unable to get UC (or the income-based version of ESA, which is currently being phased out):

– Your own income may be too high to qualify;

– Because UC is based on *household* income, a spouse or partner’s income may be too high for you to qualify;

– UC has a strict capital test, so if you (and any partners) have combined savings of more than £16,000, you would not be eligible.

There is also a benefit called “new-style ESA” that may offer more hope because it is not based on your income or savings.

However, it is based on your National Insurance record and if, as in your case, you have not worked or paid NI recently, it is quite possible that you will fail the contribution test.

At first glance, you might think there is nothing you can do: you don’t think you would qualify for ESA/UC because of your income and your NI record is not good enough to qualify for new-style ESA.

However, there is a solution. As you know, I recommended that you apply for the “new style” ESA even though you thought you would not qualify.

The reason for this is that as long as you meet the rules about not being able to work, you can still get NI credits even if you don’t receive a weekly cash benefit.

The gov.uk website specifically says about Eligibility for National Insurance credits:

Your situation is as follows: you are not in the ESA, but you meet the conditions for it

How to get credits: Apply for the new ESA model to obtain class 1 credits

It may seem strange to apply for a benefit knowing you won’t receive it, but here’s what you need to do to get NI credits.

He has since told me that he filed a claim for the new style of ESA and that an advisor called him.

She confirmed that you would not be eligible for any benefits as expected, but agreed to file the claim based solely on NI credits.

This means you will no longer have to pay voluntary NI contributions to make up the three years you are missing to receive a full state pension.

I am glad I could help, but I have no doubt that there are thousands of people of working age who are unable to work and are losing vital NI credits.

It is understandable that people are reluctant to apply for a benefit for which they do not qualify and do not know, as you do, that this is the route to obtaining the credits.

The “credit-only” award has been part of the system for decades, but information about it is scarce and people who call the DWP often fail to even mention it.

Even if someone on the phone tells you that you will not receive the benefit, you should still apply to obtain these essential NI credits.