Worried about my pension...

Ok, I am 22 year old (soon to be 23) student, studying in the UK. I have just passed my first year at university (I had 1 failed year before and 3 years gap before I could start again).

The problem with my circumstances is, that I am almost 23 years old and have only 1 year qualified as a working (again, circumstances and won't go into detail).
I've reached the conclusion that I will start working properly at the age of 25 (if I don't do any placements). I'm saying this as from summer breaks between years I can only get 2-3 months of work (the most) and during uni year I really don't have time to work as I am travelling between cities.

So, if I start working at 25, I have to work until I am 55 so I can get the basic state pension, right? What worries me is that between those years anything could happen (I might get fired, or sick or something else that could prevent me from being unemployed). My ultimate fear is that I don't qualify with 30 years (minimum) of work and in the end don't get any pension for the rest of my life. Of course, I have a partner whom I live with, but I really don't want to rely on her when the time comes.

What do you think about this. Should I be worried? Again, certain cirumstances lead to here and I can't change things, but only look and worry about the future.

Thank you and appreciated.

The way that legislation on pensions in the UK works at the moment is that you need 30 years of paying National Insurance contributions to obtain the full state pension. However irregardless of how many years worth of contributions you have, everyone gets a basic pension once they reach pensionable age, but this is less than the full amount.

If you are unemployed or sick, you can claim benefits such as Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments. These benefits include national insurance contributions. So even if you are not working, as long as you claim these benefits, the government will pay your contributions for you until you get a job.

If you do not have the 30 years requirement, you can make a voluntary National Insurance contribution. The government will send you a letter if you have missed paying any contributions and you have the option to pay the amount of money it requests to get your full year of contributions.

However, the government is currently debating pensions in parliament and are discussing scrapping the full state pension. This is because the population of Britain is growing and the treasury cannot fund the amount of pensioners which are in the UK. Therefore the government wants all workers to pay into a private pension scheme Everyone will receive a basic pension, but to get additional money on top of this, you need to join a pension scheme.

The money from this pension scheme can be obtained 2 ways. First of all you can receive a weekly allowance, just like the government pension, or you can receive a lump sum of money. You can withdraw this money early, if you wish to take early retirement, but then you would only get your basic pension when you reach retirement age.

The amount of money you receive depends on the scheme you join that the amount of money that you put into it. Employers are now legally obliged to provide a workplace pension scheme. Employees are automatically opted in to this scheme. If you don't want to be in the scheme you have to opt out and sign a form to say you do not want to pay pension contributions out of your wages.

I advise you to join the pension scheme when you start working because the future of pensions is uncertain because of changes in government policy. The best way to safeguard your future is to start a pension pot of your own by joining a pension scheme or placing money every month into an ISA savings account.

There's really no need to worry. The fact that you even know what a pension is puts you way ahead of a majority of people your age.

Remember that UK state pension age is likely to be 67+ so you have until that age to meet the required contribution levels.

Also this is only for state pension.. you will certainly want to contribute to a private pension as well which you can take at an earlier age and decide how much you want to contribute to.

The state pension age for you will be near 70 by the time you get there. You can usually access your private pensions when you are 55. You have lots of time but start sooner than later.

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