The four tables below comprise the answer to the Deputy's query regarding State Pension (Contributory), 'SPC' qualifiers.
Table 1 summarises the numbers of SPC qualifiers and changes in the average rate of SPC since 2010.
The remaining tables supply further breakdowns by payment rate and contribution history of the figures given in the first table:
Table 2: SPC awards calculated under the standard Yearly Average method. Transfers from Invalidity pension (to the maximum rate of pension) have been included in this group.
Table 3: SPC awards calculated under the "Aggregated Contributions Method" (also known as 'Total Contributions Approach' (TCA)) introduced in 2018 for SPC qualifiers from 2012 onwards. In contrast to the Yearly Average method, pension rates under this method are not limited to specific percentages of the maximum rate, so the table shows ranges of rates of payment.
Table 4: Non-standard SPC awards relating to those with service in other countries or mixed insurance records.
State Contributory Pension qualifiers
The Deputy may wish to note the following:
- The contribution bands above represent the full social insurance record used in assessing the SPC claim. Note that this includes credited contributions and Home Caring Periods, if these were used in calculating the pension rate.
- Once a person qualifies for the maximum rate of State Pension, it is not necessary to add further information to the Department's systems in relation to pre-1979 history, credited contributions and Home Caring Periods. This means that some people's social insurance records may in fact have been stronger than shown above.
- All figures are based on data extracted from the Department's IT systems as at 31st December 2021.
- All tables show the number of those who qualified for State Pension (Contributory) by year of attaining age 66 (rather than by the year in which the claim was awarded)
