What else do I need to know?
If you put off your claim for less than 12 months
You’ll have to put off claiming State Pension for at least 12 months to qualify for the lump-sum payment. If you put off claiming for less than 12 months, you can still get extra State Pension. Or, you can choose to have pension arrears paid back in one payment without any extra interest. This is known as backdating.
When putting off your claim won’t earn extra State Pension or a lump sum
If you get certain other benefits at the same time as you put off claiming State Pension, the days you get these other benefits will not count towards any extra State Pension or lump-sum payment. These benefits are:
- Carer's Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance,
Widow's Pension, Widowed Mother's Allowance, Unemployability Supplement
or any type of State Pension (not including Shared Additional Pension)
or
- an increase in any of these benefits paid to someone else for you - this does not apply if you are not living with the person getting the increase, unless they are your husband or wife.
Also, you will not build up extra State Pension or a lump sum payment for any days that you would not have been allowed to get a State Pension even if you had been claiming it – for example, if you are in prison.
Adult dependency increases
An adult dependency increase is an increase in your State Pension for a wife, husband or someone who is looking after your children, provided he or she is considered to be financially dependent on you.
If you are entitled to claim an adult dependency increase, you will not be able to do so if you put off claiming your State Pension until 6 April 2010 or later.
Find out more about adult dependency increases
Inheritance
If you die while you are still putting off your State Pension, your widow, widower or surviving civil partner may be entitled to extra State Pension or a lump-sum payment when they claim their own State Pension.
If you had already claimed your State Pension and chosen extra State Pension prior to your death, your widow, widower or surviving civil partner will get extra State Pension added to their own State Pension.
If you had already claimed your State Pension and chosen a lump sum and then subsequently died, any amount you still had left will form part of your estate in the normal way.
Rules that apply to widowers and surviving civil partners until April 2010 mean that they will not be entitled to extra State Pension or a lump-sum payment from their late wife or civil partner unless the widower or surviving civil partner is also over State Pension age when their wife or civil partner dies.
The amount of extra State Pension or lump-sum payment payable to a widow, widower or surviving civil partner will be calculated on the basis of the whole of the deceased’s basic State Pension. It will also be calculated on the basis of between 100% and 50% of any additional (earnings-related) State Pension which was, or would have been, payable to the deceased, depending on the date the deceased reached (or would have reached) State Pension age.
If you are a woman who is widowed while you are still under State Pension age, you will not be able to get extra State Pension or a lump-sum payment based on your late husband’s contributions if you remarry before you reach State Pension age.
Find out your State Pension age with the State Pension age calculator
People who live abroad
If you live outside of the UK and the countries listed below, and you have already claimed your State Pension, you will not be able to choose to give up your State Pension to earn extra State Pension or a lump-sum payment.
You may, however, have this option if you live in the following countries and you are a UK national, a national of one of them or you are otherwise entitled to live there:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.