The additional State Pension

There are different ways the basic State Pension can be topped up. One of them is the additional State Pension. You may get additional State Pension even if you do not get any basic State Pension.

You may know additional State Pension as the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme, or SERPS for short. Until April 2002, only employees could qualify for an additional State Pension under SERPS. Carers and people with long-term illnesses or disabilities who were not employees could not build up additional State Pension.

SERPS was reformed by the Government to become the State Second Pension on 6 April 2002. The State Second Pension provides:

• a more generous additional State Pension than SERPS for people on low or moderate earnings; and
• for the first time, an additional State Pension for certain carers and people with long-term illnesses or disabilities.

Any SERPS entitlement already built up between 1978 and 2002 will be protected, both for people who have already reached State Pension age and those who have not.

Since 6 April 2002, you may build up an additional State Pension through State Second Pension for each full tax year you do not work at all, or earn less than the annual National Insurance lower earnings limit (£4,108 in 2004/05) if:

• you are looking after a child aged under six and you are the person who claimed and was awarded Child Benefit for that child; or
• you are looking after an ill or disabled person and you qualify for Home Responsibilities Protection; or
• you are entitled to Carer’s Allowance – even if you do not get Carer’s Allowance because you get a benefit that pays more. (Carer’s Allowance was called Invalid Care Allowance before April 2003.)

Like the basic State Pension, you can get your additional State Pension when you reach State Pension age.

The following sections will tell you whether you will get additional State Pension automatically or what you need to do. For more information about state pensions, see State pensions – Your guide (PM2). See Other guides in the series for details about how you can get a copy of this guide.