Commentary on Sections Summary
1180.Retirement pension is paid to people who have reached pensionable age (currently 60 for women and 65 for men) provided they have made a claim for it. During their working life, they have to have paid, been treated as paid or have been credited as having paid, National Insurance contributions. The amount of retirement pension depends on the number of contributions they have built up.
1181.People must either:
	have one qualifying year since 6th April 1975 which is derived from the payment of Class 1, 2 or 3 National Insurance contributions or from Class 1 contributions treated as paid; or
	have paid 50 flat-rate contributions at any time before 6th April 1975.
1182.To get a full rate basic retirement pension, people must have qualifying years for about 90% of the years in their working life. To get a minimum basic retirement pension (25% of the full amount), people normally need 10 or 11 qualifying years.
1183.Prior to April 2000, employees started paying National Insurance contributions once their earnings reached the Lower Earnings Limit. From April 2000, a new employees’ primary threshold was introduced as the point from which employees start to pay contributions. This is set at a higher amount than the Lower Earnings Limit. As a result, employees who earn between the Lower Earnings Limit and the employees’ primary threshold no longer pay National Insurance contributions but will be treated as if they have paid them. This means they will continue to build up entitlement to contributory benefits such as retirement pensions, even though they are not paying National Insurance contributions.