Can I get a State Pension based on my husband’s contributions?

If you are a married woman, you can build up a basic State Pension by paying enough full- rate contributions yourself. Or, when you and your husband have both reached State Pension age, you can get a State Pension based on his contributions (if this would give you more) if you:

• don’t have a State Pension of your own; or
• have only built up a small State Pension.

This State Pension will be, at most, around 60% of the full rate of the basic State Pension. So if you are a married woman and your own basic State Pension is less than 60% of the full rate, we can use your husband’s contributions to give you a State. Pension of around 60% (as long as he has earned a full State Pension himself). But you can’t get this as well as your own State Pension. If the State Pension you earned on your own contributions is more than the amount we can pay on your husband’s contributions, we will pay you this higher amount, not both.

At the moment, a married man cannot get a State Pension on his wife’s National Insurance contributions record. However, this will change from 2010 when the State Pension age for women begins to change.