State Retirement Pensions: USA

(asked on 27th June 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there is a specific process for working between the US and UK in order to have US accrued benefits recognised by the State Pension Scheme.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 4th July 2022

When a customer makes their claim to UK State Pension and advises that they have worked in the USA the International Pension Centre will take the necessary steps to obtain USA insurance records and calculate the best payable rate of State Pension for the customer using both UK and USA insurance.

To qualify for a full UK State Pension a customer must have at least 35-years of paid or credited UK National Insurance contributions.

To qualify for any UK State Pension a customer must meet the Minimum Qualifying Period of 10-years of paid or credited National Insurance contributions. Satisfying the Qualifying Period enables a customer to receive 1/35 of the full UK State Pension for every year of contributions on their National Insurance record.

When a customer does not meet the Minimum Qualifying Period and has worked and paid insurance in the USA we can use these records to help satisfy the 10 year Minimum Qualify Period. However, it is important to understand the payable rate of their UK State Pension will only be calculated based on the number of years of contributions on their UK National Insurance record.

The UK has a Reciprocal Agreement with the USA which allows for insurance paid in the USA to be considered when establishing a customer’s entitlement to the UK State Pension.

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