If you paid full-rate social insurance contributions before 1953 and you do not qualify for a standard pension, you may qualify for a special State Pension (Contributory), which is half the maximum standard pension. You may also get increases for a qualified adult and qualified children with this special pension (also payable at half rate).
How to qualify
To qualify, you must have paid 260 full-rate contributions. The 260 can be made up of:
- contributions paid before 1953 (05/01/1953 for a man, 06/07/1953 for a woman),
- or
- a mix of contributions paid before and after 1953. When we work out the number of pre-1953 contributions, we count every 2 paid contributions as 3 to give you a better chance of qualifying.