{"id":382144,"date":"2026-01-21T12:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/382144\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:02:08","slug":"dwp-handing-full-state-pensions-to-people-whove-never-worked-in-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/382144\/","title":{"rendered":"DWP handing full state pensions to people ‘who’ve never worked in Britain’"},"content":{"rendered":"

DWP has now admitted that some expats can claim the full state pension without ever working a day in Britain.\"DWP<\/p>\n

DWP handing full state pensions to people ‘who’ve never worked in Britain'(Image: )<\/p>\n

State pensioners are being given the full state pension – despite NEVER working in the UK. The DWP<\/a> has now admitted that some expats can claim the full state pension without ever working a day in Britain.<\/p>\n

The little-known loophole could be worth almost \u00a312,000 a year. To receive the new state pension, retirees must reach age 66 with at least 10 years of National Insurance contributions through either work or credits for unemployment, sickness and childcare.<\/p>\n

To be eligible for the full amount, 35 years are required. Anyone with fewer than 10 years can still qualify using years worked in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland or a country that signed an agreement with the UK<\/p>\n

READ MORE UK households without driveways issued \u00a340,000 warning in ‘two-tier’ system<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew Campbell, of law firm Doyle Clayton, said: \u201cSocial security agreements in relation to state pension savings protect British nationals who spend part of their working life outside the UK but retain a reasonable expectation of retiring here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this example, there\u2019s a technical argument that someone could meet the criteria for a state pension. What constitutes a \u2018genuine and sufficient link\u2019 is unspecified but without a working history in the UK, there may be other ways this could be exhibited, such as frequently visiting and having family or property here.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously somebody with a very limited history of working or paying tax in the UK isn\u2019t who these arrangements are designed to cater for, even if they can bring a claim. Either way, with life expectancy increasing, savers need to be building up separate private pension provision to guarantee a comfortable retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

A DWP spokesman said: \u201cThis is an extreme hypothetical example that doesn\u2019t reflect how the state pension system works in practice for the overwhelming majority of pensioners, whether living abroad or in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person would need to demonstrate genuinely strong links to the UK which are unlikely to exist if they had never worked here.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll be able to claim the new State Pension when you reach State Pension age if you\u2019re a man born on or after April 6, 1951 or a woman born on or after April 6, 1953.<\/p>\n

It has been confirmed that you will need 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record to get any new State Pension.<\/p>\n

A qualifying year is one in which you were working and made National Insurance contributions or getting National Insurance credits for example if you were unemployed, ill or a parent or carer or paying voluntary National Insurance contributions.<\/p>\n

You might also qualify if you\u2019ve lived or worked abroad or paid reduced-rate National Insurance for married women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DWP has now admitted that some expats can claim the full state pension without ever working a day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,2215,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-382144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dwp","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-personal-finance","12":"tag-personalfinance","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}