Commentary on Sections Category A pensions
1193.A Category A retirement pension consists of two parts:
	basic retirement pension – dependent on the number of qualifying years in a person’s working life;
	additional retirement pension – dependent on a person’s earnings, or deemed earnings in their working life, since April 1978.
1194.It is paid to:
	anyone who can satisfy the entitlement conditions;
	anyone reaching pensionable age after 5th April 1979 by using qualifying years of their former spouse for a basic retirement pension only;
	a woman who reached pensionable age before 6th April 1979 by using the qualifying years of her former husband for a basic retirement pension only;
	a widow or widower entitled to long-term incapacity benefit under prescribed circumstances.
1195.In order to receive a Category A pension, a person has to have:
	reached pensionable age;
	satisfied the conditions for basic retirement pension (or additional retirement pension) or both; and
	made a claim for retirement pension.