• As of 6^th April 2010 the number of years required to qualify for a full basic State Pension reduced from 39 years for women and 44 years for men to 30 years for everyone, regardless of sex.
• From 2012 the annual cost of living increases in basic State Pensions will increase in line with earnings, rather than prices as before (this is subject to affordability but will start by 2015 at the latest).
• As of 6^th April 2010 Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) will be replaced by a new system of weekly credits, aimed to benefit parents who receive child benefit for a child under the age of 12 and carers caring for somebody who is sick or disabled for more than 20 hours a week.

Additional State Pension

• As of April 2012 you will no longer be able to contract out of the additional State Pension. Those who currently contract out into a personal, stakeholder or occupational pension will automatically be bought back into the additional State Pension and begin to build entitlement to the additional State Pension.

State Pension Age

• The current state pension age for Women is 60 and for Men is 65. As of the 5^th April 2010 this will gradually rise until the women’s state pension age reaches 65 in 2020.
• To reflect increasing life expectancy the state pension age will then rise gradually from 65 to 68 between 6^th April 2020 and 5^th April 2046.

Stakeholder Pensions

• The 2008 Pensions Act requires all employers to enrol employees into workplace pension schemes, with the option to opt out, rather than the current scheme where employees have to opt in. Starting in 2012 it is estimated that between five and nine million people will be saving more as a result of these reforms.

Personal Pensions

• Personal pensions are popular among the self employed or those whose company doesn’t offer a pension scheme. You can draw on them from 55 but many choose to wait until you are 60 or 65. This changed from 50 in April 2010. The latest age you can act is 75.

Company Pensions

• Company Pension rules changed in April 2006. Anyone who had joined their company pension scheme during or after 1989 were restricted to how much they could contribute. There is now no limit to how much you can contribute, and to how many pension schemes. You also get tax relief on any amount equivalent to 100% of your income for the year.
• April 2006 also saw employees able to draw from the pension scheme whilst still working for the same employer, depending on the rules of their company’s pension scheme.

Tax Relief

• You have the option to save as much as you like into any number, and different types of pensions.
• Up to the age of 75 everyone gets tax relief on pension contributions up to any amount equivalent to 100% of their earnings, each year. This is, however, subject to an upper limit of £255,000 for 2010-2011 and reduces to £150,000 from April 2011.
• Restrictions have been put in place from April 2009 to stop people making large pension contributions before April 2011 to gain the favourable tax relief during this period. These apply to those earning £150,000 or more, with total pension savings of more than £20,000 and who change the amount of their normal regular pension savings.

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