State pensioners wake up to mysterious £921 payments in bank account State pensioners have been handed their four-weekly £921 payments a working day early, with Friday, May 2, marking the date of the DWP payouts instead of Monday, May 5, which is a bank holiday. State pensioners wake up to mysterious £921 payments in bank account State pensioners have woken up to mysterious £921 payments on Friday - as the exact reason for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) payouts emerges. State pensioners have been handed their four-weekly £921 payments a working day early, with Friday, May 2, marking the date of the DWP payouts instead of Monday, May 5, which is a bank holiday. ‌ You have a National Insurance number to make sure your National Insurance contributions and tax are recorded against your name only. Your National Insurance number remains the same for life. It’s made up of 2 letters, 6 numbers and a final letter. ‌ READ MORE HMRC issues warning to 'wind down' use of scheme as it begins 'crackdown' You’ll usually get a letter confirming your National Insurance number shortly before your 16th birthday. This will be sent to the address HMRC has for you. You should get a letter inviting you to claim up to four months before you reach State Pension age. But you can still claim if you do not get a letter. Article continues below You can claim online up to three months before you reach State Pension age. You’ll need the invitation code from the letter about getting your State Pension. If you haven’t received this, you can ask for a code on the government website. You can also claim by phone or by post. Call the State Pension claim line on 0800 731 7898 up to four months before you reach State Pension age. If you’re claiming the basic State Pension, you can download a claim form from Gov.uk. You can get the new State Pension if you reach your State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016. This means you’re a woman born on or after 6 April 1953 or a man born on or after 6 April 1951. Article continues below The full rate for new State Pension is £230.25 a week for 2025/26. But the amount you get could be more or less than this. You need 35 qualifying years or more of NI contributions to get a full new State Pension. If you’ve got between 10 and 35 qualifying years, you’ll get part of the full rate. This is 1/35th for each qualifying year you have. So, if you have 20 years, for example, you’d get 20/35ths of the full rate: £230.25 ÷ 35 x 20 = £131.57. If you’ve got under 10 qualifying years, you usually won’t get any State Pension.