A detailed guide to State Pensions for advisers and others

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A married woman has reached State Pension age but her husband has not
She may qualify for:
• Category A pension based on her own National Insurance record (including any
additional State Pension) with or without Graduated Retirement Benefit; or
• Graduated Retirement Benefit only.
If she does not qualify for either of these, she will have to wait until her husband
reaches his State Pension age and claims his State Pension before she can receive a
State Pension. (From 6 April 2010, it will no longer be necessary for her husband to
have actually claimed his State Pension, but he must have reached State Pension
age before she can claim a Category B pension.) In some circumstances it may be
possible for her to pay Class 3 National Insurance contributions for earlier years to
allow her to get a Category A pension at the minimum rate. She should ask us
whether there are contributions she can pay which will allow her to qualify for a
basic State Pension. (There are time limits on making these payments.)
[Pensions Act 2007 section 2]
A married woman has reached State Pension age and her husband is already
getting his State Pension
She may be entitled to:
• her own Category A pension;
• a Category B pension from her husband’s contributions;
• a combination of Category A and B pension;
• Graduated Retirement Benefit only.
Any adult dependency increase her husband had been getting for her on his
Category A pension will stop when she becomes entitled to her State Pension.
A married woman has reached State Pension age and so has her husband, but he
has not claimed his State Pension
She may be entitled to a Category A pension with or without any Graduated
Retirement Benefit, or Graduated Retirement Benefit on its own.
She cannot get a Category B pension until both of them satisfy the conditions for
State Pension. Until 6 April 2010, this includes having made a claim for it. So, if
her husband has chosen to put off claiming his State Pension, she will not get a
Category B pension based on his contributions until he claims his State Pension.
She may also build up entitlement to extra State Pension or a lump-sum payment
on the Category B pension during this period but only if she does not claim any
Category A pension she would be entitled to on her own National Insurance
contributions. (If she is claiming Graduated Retirement Benefit only, this will not
prevent her building up extra State Pension or a lump-sum payment, as long as
she does not claim the Category B pension before 6 April 2006.)
From 6 April 2010 she will no longer have to wait for her husband to have claimed
his State Pension before she can claim a Category B pension if they have both
reached State Pension age. If her husband has put off claiming his State Pension