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The state pension is one of those vital opt-in frameworks workers make use of throughout their professional careers. Pensions define the latter years of someone’s life, but many are clueless
about what to do with it beyond the opting in stage. April will see the turning of the financial year, with a number of tax changes coming into effect. Among these changes is an increase in
automatic enrolment contributions. HOW CAN YOU CHECK STATE PENSION? Checking state pension is fairly easy, as the government provides its own online service. The website prompts you to sign
in with an account, which can be used to check how much pension you could claim and how you can increase it. The government also shows you where to claim it from and how, and says the best
way to draw your pension is over the phone, or via the local pension centre. The government will be making changes to certain pension schemes next month with the new financial year on April
6. The new state pension will be among plans seeing a slight boost. Pensioners who are entitled to the single-tier pension will see it increase by a full £4.25 per week. Overall, this is an
increase from £164.35 to £168.60. This group of pensioners will on average gain an extra £221 by the end of the tax year in 2019/2020. The basic state pension will also receive a slight
increase of £3.25 per week. For the 2019/2020 year, this means basic state pension rates per week will rise from £125.95 to £129.20 per week. In total, pensioners will see a £169 boost in
2019/20, and total annual income will rise from £6,549.40 to £6,718.40 a year. From April 6, the government is also introducing an increase to automatic enrolment proceedings. This will mean
both employers and staff with a pension scheme will be paying slightly more into employee pension pots. Currently, employers are paying two percent of employee salary into the pot each
month, and staff are paying three. From April 6 this will increase to three percent for employers and five percent for staff, with an overall eight percent contribution.