For the year 2002/03 the annual payment is £6240 for a couple and £3900 for a single person. Because they are only increased in line with inflation they will not keep pace with earnings, and will, relatively speaking decline in value over the years to come.

You must have paid ( or be treated as having paid, eg while unemployed) Class 1 National Insurance contributions for 90% of an assumed 49 year working life. ( The period begining at the start of the tax year in which you are 16, and ending at the end of the tax year when you hit 64).

If you do not qualify you get a reduced pension on a sliding scale according to contributions paid.

If you have missed years you can consult the DSS and find out if you should make an extra contribution to recoup the loss. ( But when you find out the level test to see if perhaps it is good value - maybe you should use it to put in a lump sum private pension. Do the math).

If you delay taking your pension you get an enhancement worth roughly 7.5% for each year of delay. However you get it at 70 (men) or 65 (women) anyway. whether or not you have actually retired. (At this point the enhancement would be 37.5%).

• Married women may qualify for their own pension, or, if better for them, 60% of her husbands pension.

• Home Responsibilities Protection - available to those who cannot work because they are stay at home caring for children, the elderly or infirm.

• Expats may be given credit for payments made to other countries schemes while overseas.

• A husband normally gets the couples rate even if his wife is not of retirement age. A woman may get an increase in respect of her husband, but conditions apply.

• Widows pensions ( details according to age, whether or not children are being looked after etc) are cancelled if she remarries or lives with a male partner.

• Various pensions and benefits according to status, age , whether a mother with children under 19 etc.

A complex benefit that will top up you pension, but many people are excluded by reason of membership of certain types of employer run pension schemes, or who have taken out Appropriate Personal Pension in order to contract out. The aim being that armed with extra cash from the government the private fund ( whether your own or via the employer) would grow to provide better benefits than SERPS.

In the event that you leave an employer where you were in their Contracted Out scheme there are various complex rules that seek to ensure that your position is protected.

The only sensible thing to do is , every two or three years, have your SERPS position assessed to see if you should be in or out, and act accordingly.

Old scheme from 1961 to 1975. You should get all benefits automatically, but refer to the DSS if you need info.