Who Qualifies for a Pension?

Posted in Life Insurance

February 6th, 2009

If you hope to qualify for a pension, then its important to know that there are different types of pensions out there, meaning people who qualify will vary. Lets take a closer look at which ones may fall into a category that you can qualify for.

Basic State Pension

Individuals can claim the basic state pension if they are ages 65 for men and 60 for women. In order to qualify, you have to build up enough qualifying years, or tax years in which you have sufficient earnings that you have been paid. You can choose not to claim this pension at the age you qualify for it, and instead wait a few years to claim a higher weekly payment amount.

Personal Pension

These types of pensions actually offer more flexibility than those from the state. For example, if you take out a personal pension at a bank or life insurance company, you can actually start making claims at the age of 50 (both men and women). Also, there is no limit on the number of schemes you can set up and most importantly, after setting one up, you will still qualify for a pension with the State.

Stakeholder Pension

The stakeholder pension is actually a form of the personal pension and in a similar vein, it maintains an age criteria of 50. What some love about this pension is that there is no necessity to work to be able to contribute every month, making it a great route to take if youre self-employed, or your employer doesnt offer one from the company.

Company (Occupational) Pension

These types of pensions are set up by employers for employees and require that you make regular payments from your income, while they contribute a portion as well. Anyone can qualify for a pension of this type as long as they work for the company offering it; however, there may be certain guidelines in place to determine just how long you have to work for the company before you can begin making contributions.

As you can see, what it takes to qualify for a pension does vary. By reviewing the types of pensions available, youll have a much better idea of how you can fit into the equation.