Deadline Extended!

Since writing the below, the 5th April 2023 deadline has now been extended to 5th April 2025.

This is due to difficulties people have been experiencing in contacting the Future Pension Centre, who deal with enquiries in this regard. You can find their contact details here: https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre

We wanted to bring your attention to the State Pension. Did you know that, if you have any gaps in your National Insurance record, you are able to top up your State Pension? This is available to those under State Pension age (66) and those in receipt of their State Pension, if you are not receiving the full amount.

You need at least 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance (NI) record to get any State Pension, and 35 years to get the full new State Pension (£185.15 per week at the timing of writing – for the current amount, please see https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get).

If you are missing any years within your NI record you may be able to make voluntary NI contributions, to ‘top up’ your NI, and make up any gaps you may have. This could be due to caring for someone, being abroad, low income or a career break.

Ordinarily, you can ‘top up’ any gap in the previous 6 years, however, until 5th April 2023, you can go as far back as 2006. From 6th April 2023, this ability will be removed, and you will only be able to go as far back as 6th April 2017.

To check whether you have any missing years, first check your State Pension forecast, using this link: https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

From there, you will also be able to check your NI record, which will detail any gaps you may have (or go straight to: https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record)

For some gaps, you may be able to obtain ‘free credits’ for example if you were a carer, had childcare responsibilities or had an illness. Otherwise, you can make a voluntary NI contribution for each year missed. The cost of this will depend on whether a full year was missed, or a partial year – your record will show the detail. Further information can be found here:      https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions