Why some retirees have a £47,800 a year state pension – and how to boost yours
TEN lucky retirees are being paid a whopping £47,803 in state pension each year - four times more than a typical pensioner.
These fortunate few are handed £919.30 a week in the 2023/24 tax year, The Sun can reveal.
The staggering figures come from a Freedom of Information request we submitted.
In comparison, a pensioner who received the full rate of new state pension would get £203.85 a week. This is £715.45 less than their wealthy peers.
But these lucky ten are not alone.
Last year, 540 pensioners were handed more than £576.93 a week - meaning they took home at least £30,000. Just 31 pensioners earned this amount in the previous year.
Read more on the state pension
The top earner's income is set to rise even further next year to nearly £50,000.
This is because their payments will increase through the triple-lock guarantee.
Under the triple-lock, the state pension rises each year in line with inflation, wages or 2.5% - whichever is higher.
The state pension is set to rise by 4.1% next year in line withe wage growth.
For a retiree who receives the new state pension, this means they will get £230.25 a week, or £11,973 a year.
But the ten fortunate pensioners will see their weekly income shoot up to £956.99.
The boost will push their income up to an astounding £49,763.55 a year.
How to increase your state pension for free
There are several ways you can boost your state pension without paying a penny. Here we explain how they work:
- Defer your payments
You do not have to claim your state pension when you reach the age of 66.
Instead, you can delay the date you start to receive the payments to increase the amount of money you get when they begin.
To do this, you need to push back the date your state pension payments start by at least nine weeks.
Your payments will rise by an extra 1% for every nine weeks you defer them.
This works out at just shy of 5.8% for every year you push them back.
By deferring for one year you will get an extra £12.82 a week at the current new state pension rate.
When the state pension rises next year the amount you would get could be even larger.
The extra money is paid with your regular state pension payment.
- Claim National Insurance credits
To get the full new state pension you need at least 35 years of National Insurance contributions.
If you have fewer years than this you will get less than the maximum amount of state pension each week.
But you can fill in gaps in your National Insurance record for free if you are eligible for but have not claimed certain tax credits.
You may not have been able to pay National Insurance for several reasons, such as if you were ill or caring for someone else.
In this instance, the Government may have given you tax credits so you can still build up your state pension entitlement.
Steve Webb, the former pension minister and partner at LCP, said this is “by far” the cheapest way to boost your state pension.
He added: “Make sure you are getting all the National Insurance credits to which you may be entitled.
“This could include as a grandparent looking after your grandchildren or a carer looking after a disabled person.”
Check your National Insurance record on the GOV.UK website to see if you have any gaps.
- Check your payments are correct
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) began investigating pension underpayments in January 2021.
So far it has uncovered 119,050 cases where pensioners were underpaid the state pension between January 2021 and September 2024.
If your state pension is less than you expected then you should check with the DWP that you are being paid the correct amount.
So, how on earth are these fortunate few able to rake in so much cash from the state pension?
Here, we explain how they did it, and how you could potentially boost your state pension income too.
How does the new state pension work?
The state pension is paid by the government to most people when they reach the age of 66.
Those on the new state pension currently get up to £221.20 a week, or £11,502.40 a year.
But from April, their payments will rise by £470.60 a year.
How much state pension you get depends on your National Insurance (NI) record, so not everyone will get the same amount.
Retirees need 35 qualifying years of NI contributions to get the maximum amount of new state pension.
You make these contributions through work or by getting credits, for example by looking after a child or person who is ill.
You need ten qualifying years on your NI record to get any state pension at all.
How does the old state pension work?
The old state pension covers people who reached the state pension age before April 6, 2016.
It is paid to men born before April 6, 1951, and women born before April 6, 1953.
Nearly three quarters of pensioners are on the old state pension, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
It currently pays up to £8,814 a year, or £169.50 a week.
But there is a complicated system which means some of those pensioners get a significantly higher income.
That's because they get additional payments from the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme (Serps), also known as the second state pension.
The amount you will get depends on your NI contributions.
Some people will only receive a few pounds, while others will get the maximum payment of up to £218.39 a week.
When added to the full basic state pension, this could see you take home £387.89 a week - or £20,170.28 a year.
Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said these figures show the importance of pension planning.
She said: "Many of these people have accrued extra benefits through the second state pension and have really enhanced their retirement as a result.
"It shows the importance of getting a state pension forecast so you have a sense of what you are on track to receive."
This is the first way the ten lucky retirees will have increased their earnings.
The state pension can also be boosted using Graduated Retirement Benefit.
This scheme tops up your basic pension based on the national insurance contributions you made between 1961 and 1975.
But, you will only benefit if you were a high earner during this period, so you could make large contributions.
So if you were a low earner at this time, you may have missed out.
Defer state pension to increase payments
You could also increase the amount of state pension you get by pushing back the date you begin to claim it.
Deferring the state pension will mean that your payments are permanently higher when you do claim it.
You must defer your state pension for at least nine weeks after you reach the state pension age to get the increase.
Your state pension will rise by 1% for every nine weeks you defer it.
If you push back your payments for a year, then they will increase by almost 5.8%.
Deferring the new state pension for one year would give you an extra £12.82 a week, based on the current rate.
If you are on the old state pension then the system is slightly different.
You only need to defer your state pension for at least five weeks to see it boosted.
Beyond this point, your state pension will increase by 1% for every five weeks you push it back.
After one year this would be equivalent to a boost of 10.4%.
At the current rate, deferring the old state pension for one year would give you an extra £17.63 a week.
The ten best-paid pensioners would have needed to defer their payments by around ten years and six months to get their current payout.
Doing so would earn them an extra £189.04 on top of their full state pension and SERPs payments.
This would push their income up to £919.30 a week.
Tom Selby, director of public policy at AJ Bell, said: "Anyone wanting an income in retirement of these levels or higher needs to get their house in order.
"They should make sure they are contributing as much as they can to their private pension, make the most of any employer contributions available, the generous tax incentives on offer and harness the power of tax-free growth over the long-term."
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Healthy pensioners benefit the most from deferring their payments as they will be able to enjoy the extra income for longer.
But those in poor health may not want to put off their payments and so will not benefit from the boost.
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