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State pension
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State pension age is different depending on when you were born.
When can you receive your state pension?
State pension age
The state pension age determines when you can start to claim your state pension.
State pension age is different depending on when you were born.
Find out your state pension age on the government website.
How much state pension might you get?
Topping up your firefighters pension scheme
The best way to find out how much state pension you might receive is to visit the government website and request a state pension forecast.
The state pension has changed over time. Currently there is a single-tier state pension, but in the past the state pension as been made up from two parts – basic and additional.
When the additional state pension was in place, pension schemes had the option to ‘contract out’ of this and offer members the equivalent income.
The firefighters pension scheme was one of the pension schemes that decided to do this. This means that if you were a member of the firefighters’ pension scheme between 6 April 1978 and 5 April 2016, you may have additional benefits payable by the firefighters’ pension scheme.
There may be circumstances where members who were part of the firefighters’ pension scheme 1992 and decided to retire at age 50 have not made full national insurance contributions. This can impact the value of your state pension. You can find out more in your state pension forecast.
Topping up your state pension
Ensure you have enough
The amount of state pension you receive is dependent on your national insurance contributions that you have made.
If you are not on track to get the full amount of state pension (or you are not receiving the full amount if you have already drawn your state pension), then you can top it up by making voluntary national insurance contributions.
You can find out more about topping up your state pension on the government website.
Deferring your state pension
Taking it later
Delaying the date you start taking the state pension can also increase the amount you could receive.
The government has more details about deferring your state pension on their website.