New state pension: how am I affected? Any change of this scale will create winners as well as losers. Hopefully, the information below should help you assess your options and understand what pension you might get when you retire. What will the new pension be worth? It's a bit of a misnomer to call the new payment a "flat-rate" pension, as not everyone will get the same amount. If you qualify for the full amount you should get a payment that will be worth £144 a week in today's money. This will be paid to everyone who has made National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for 35 years. If you have paid less, the amount received will be lowered accordingly. Couples who both have full NI records will be due an income of £288 a week. How does this compare with the current state pension? The basic state pension is currently £107 a week for a single person, but many people receive more because they contributed to the earnings-related State Second Pension (S2P) or its predecessor, Serps. Workers on higher earnings who have remained in these earnings-related pensions can potentially earn more than £200 a week through these schemes, significantly more than the revised "higher" basic state pension. Will those retiring after 2017 receive their Serps or S2P pension benefits, or is the Government going to whittle them down over time? If you have built up an entitlement to these additional pensions you will still receive it in full. However, those who remain in the workplace after 2017 won't earn any further benefit from the top-up schemes after this date. This means that many higher earners are likely to end up with a smaller state pension overall as a result of the changes. Can I delay taking my state pension to qualify for a larger one under the new scheme? Unfortunately this is not possible. If you reach your state pension age before April 7 2017 (the likely implementation date of the new scheme) your pension will be calculated using the rules in force now. You can still delay taking your pension beyond 2017, but you will remain under the current rules. When can I draw my state pension? It's important to remember that the date you retire does not necessarily coincide with the date you receive your state pension. Women, who previously got their state pension at 60, are already in a transition process under which the state pension age will move to 65. For both men and women the state pension age is rising in stages to 68 by 2046. In future the pension age will be linked to longevity, and reviewed every five years. The first review will be in 2017 but should not affect those who are due to get their pension within 10 years. I already get the state pension, while my wife's will be taken after 2017. Will they continue to be index-linked? The basic state pension will continue to be protected by the "triple lock." This means it will be uprated each year by whichever is greatest of earnings inflation, the consumer prices index (CPI) or 2.5pc. This will apply to the new flat-rate pension. However, any pension earned through Serps or S2P will be uprated in line with the CPI only, so it may not rise as much in future. I have made 30 years of National Insurance contributions and now work unpaid. I checked that my contribution would give me a full state pension when I retired. Laith Khalaf of Hargreaves Lansdown, the financial adviser, said that, if your state pension age was after 2017, you would need an additional five years' NICs to get a full state pension. But this doesn't mean you will necessarily be worse off. As he pointed out, if you do not make any further NICs you will be entitled to 30 35ths of the new £144 state pension, which should be about £122 in today's money. This is more than the £107 you would have received from the current full basic pension. Of course, if you have also paid into the Serps scheme, or S2P, you will get this pension as well. However, if you have contracted out of either of these top-up plans, this will reduce the percentage of the new state pension you will receive. There will be an adjustment made to the value of the flat-rate pension to reflect the number of years you have been contracted out. "We are awaiting further details of how this will be calculated, but all indications are that the amount you receive won't be less than the current basic state pension," Mr Khalaf said. I've moved out of full-time work, assuming that my 30-year NI record would be enough to secure a full state pension. Is there anything I can do now to rectify the situation? It is possible to make additional NICs to "buy back" lost years. In fact, provided that you are in good health and can afford it, it is usually advantageous to do so. The current rules state that if you haven't paid full NI contributions in any one year, you have up to six years to effectively "repay" the shortfall. However, the Government has announced that it will extend this window of opportunity, so those retiring after April 2017 will have until 2023 to buy back the contributions they could have paid between 2006 and 2016. Currently it would cost around £700 to make up a year's worth of NI contributions, which would give you an extra £186 a year in pension payments for life. As Mike Warburton of accountants Grant Thornton pointed out, you would have to live only about four years after retirement to be better off under this deal. It looks ever better value for money against the increased state pension payable after 2017. However, Mr Khalaf said he expected the Government to increase the cost of buying back years to reflect the change in benefits. If you are not currently in the workplace, one of the most cost-effective ways to improve your NI record is to set yourself up as self-employed and opt to pay the NICs, even if your earnings mean that this is not compulsory. This class of NI costs just £2.65 a week (so just £137 a year) but still counts towards your pension entitlement. That sounds like a bargain. How can I go wrong? You have to be self-employed to qualify, and you may also have to make additional "Class 4" NI contributions on profits made by your business. It's worth remembering that these contributions are paid in the current year, and can't be bought retrospectively to repair your NI record. There is also the chance that the requirements will change again - the new scheme is just a proposal at present. If you buy back years you don't subsequently need it will effectively be money down the drain, as you won't get a refund. The Department for Work & Pensions said people should wait until the final legislation is in place, then consider what the best course of action would be for their circumstances. How will the changes affect my wife's pension entitlement? She stayed at home to care for the family and as a result has not paid NI herself Those who stayed at home to care for children should have built up credit that would count towards their pension entitlement. Anyone in this position should get an NI contribution statement from HM Revenue & Customs, which will detail the NI paid, any credits awarded and how many qualifying years have been attained. If some credits don't count as "full years," it should also state how much, if anything, can be paid to make those years count. Those due to retire after 2017 should look at buying back years as they may now be able to build a better pension in their own right in future. I paid lower NI rates - the "married woman's stamp" - on the assumption that I would be able to claim a pension based on my husband's NI record. Will this be possible now? Mr Khalaf said those who paid a reduced "married woman's stamp" shouldn't be any worse off after 2017. I'm due to retire before 2017, but my wife after then. Would she still get a pension based on my NI record, or would she effectively get nothing under the new rules, as the single-tier pension is based on an individual's own contribution record? Mr Khalaf said: "The Government is putting in place transitional arrangements to ensure that wives retiring after 2017 can still receive a pension by virtue of their husband's contributions." These rules will apply to couples who both retire after 2017. However, he said that if under the current system they were entitled to 60pc of their husband's basic pension, they would not get 60pc of the new higher single-tier pension. Instead, their pension would be considered under both the old and new scheme, and they would be paid whichever was higher. The pension I get now is more than £144. Will it be cut in 2017? Those in receipt of a pension should not be affected. If they are currently receiving more than the new pension, this will continue. But the reverse is also true and their payments won't be "rounded up" if they now get a smaller basic pension. I was widowed when I was 38, when I was pregnant, then stayed at home to care for my son. A recent pension forecast suggested that I would get additional pension, based on the pension inherited from my husband. I'm now concerned that this won't happen While the new pension regime won't allow people to "inherit" benefits earned after 2017, the transitional arrangement will ensure that benefits accumulated, or inherited, before this date are still honoured, even if the widow herself does not retire until after 2017. I never contracted out - have I lost out? The value of the top-up state pensions has diminished in recent years. The extent to which you have lost out will depend on how the adjustments made to the new pension reflect the years contracted out. Many may find that the value of their "contracted out" pensions is more than the subsequent reduction to their state pension. Normally, those in final salary schemes also contracted out, although they didn't receive a rebate to reinvest in a private pension. However, they will have paid lower NI premiums while they were members of these schemes. Many final-salary plans are contracted out. In addition, the value of the single-tier pension will be adjusted to take account of the years you were contracted out. However, the adjusted amount is not expected to be less than the current state pension. There are fears that the extra costs imposed on final salary schemes by the new system - employers will also have to increase their NI payments when contracting out is ended - may force more schemes to close.