Commentary on Sections Deferral of state pension The current position
1199.A person is entitled to retirement pension from age 60 for a woman and age 65 for a man, providing he makes a claim for it. If a person does not claim his pension from that date he will not receive any pension for the period between pension age and the date of claim. He will instead qualify for an increase to his weekly pension from the point at which he does claim.
1200.A person may also be eligible for increments through electing to cancel his entitlement to retirement pension. For example, having drawn his pension at age 65, a man may choose to cancel his entitlement at age 66. A person may cancel his entitlement in this way once only. This means there are in effect two possible opportunities to earn increments – the first, by not claiming on reaching pensionable age; the second, by electing to cancel entitlement after claiming.
1201.The amount of the increase is calculated using a formula which results in an increase, or “increment”, of 1/7th of 1% of the weekly pension as at the date of claim, for each “incremental period” (equivalent to a week) in the deferment period. Increments of less than 1% cannot be awarded; therefore to qualify for an increase a person must defer claiming for at least seven weeks. The incremental rate is currently equivalent to approximately 7.4% of the weekly rate for each full year deferred. For example:
	total number of weeks deferred = 52
	weekly pension (basic plus additional) at date of claim = £90
	amount of increase = 1/7 × 90/100 × 52 = £6.69
	total weekly pension = £96.69
1202.Increments may normally be earned for a maximum of five years, and may be accrued on all components of the contributory state retirement pension i.e. Category A and B pensions and Graduated Retirement Benefit (the predecessor to the present earnings-related additional pension component of the state pension scheme). Increments may also be earned by deferring the shared additional pension,(2) and Guaranteed Minimum Pension(3).
1203.It is not possible to defer only part of the pension, for example, a person cannot decide to claim just his basic pension while deferring his additional pension (i.e. the pension derived from the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) or the State Second Pension).