To remind you to check your pension contributions before April 2025.

I worked in the public sector so was contracted out of the full state pension in favour of the public sector pension.

I stopped work early (before 60) and although I have the required number of years to get a full state pension, my actual forecast is less than that due to having been contracted out.

I need to pay 3 years of class 3 contributions as a lump sum to bring my state pension up to the max (class 3 NI is what you pay if you're not working). If I do this, I'll recoup that lump sum in just over 3 years. (And hopefully I'll live longer than that, fingers crossed!)

So if you can do it, and your figures are anything like mine, then yes, it's worth doing.

@Staringatthemoon @Yogurtraisins

My understanding is that you MAY need more than 35 years of NI contributions to qualify for the full state pension amount. If some of your working years were with a company who ‘contracted out’, you may not have paid the full contributions for those years. If you’re unsure if this is your situation (I know people who weren’t aware whether their employing company had contracted out) you need to access the gov.uk site by requesting a login, as described upthread, and they tell you exactly how much pension you’re due and where the gaps are. If you’re unsure about whether paying for a gap year is worth it, their phone helpline lets you talk to someone who works it out for you and advises whether it’s worthwhile paying for gaps (it’s a free service). I’ve had to pay 40 yrs of contributions to get the full pension, DH has had to pay 41.

www.gov.uk/contracted-out/how-contracting-out-affects-your-amount

Changes to state pension have to have a very long lead in time so it's unlikely that any change would affect you with under 20 years to go.

It’s going up to 68, not sure exactly when.

You don't need to do anything other than continue to pay NI contributions presuming that you earn enough to do so. If it says that you can't improve your forecast it means you have paid enough year for State Pension. You do however have to continue to pay NI until SP age.

Yes because if you complete them they will count towards the number you need a full contribution from to get a full pension- currently 33 full contribution years- so you'll have 14 complete years and 19 complete years still to pay. If you don't complete them you them, you will have 9 years that count and 24 to pay full contributions from. Surely it is worth paying an extra £800 for a full year than starting again from nothing to pay full years?

Probably not as long as that is the only year with a gap. You have 30 more years ahead of you to make contributions.

No you can’t alas. We moved here in 2008 and late last year I specifically researched this exact question. When you are trying to backfill previous years, You need to prove residency in the country (if you’re not born in U.K) for the years you’re trying to backfill.

That means putting in your date of arrival in the start of the process, and the gov website was very clear in saying you couldn’t apply to backfill years prior to your arrival in the country.

this does makes sense … as if you were working in another country, you’d be contributing to that pension system, not the uk one.

It means you need 5 more years of contributions. As long as you meet the 5 mire years you will then get your full state pension when you retire at 67/68

Good luck with that. When I was paying my additional contributions, it took 4/5 weeks to update, not 4/5 days…

thought I was OK until I noticed this paragraph at the bottom. As if waiting til 67 wasn't grim enough, it could now be longer 😫

I applied to pay a years NI to increase my state pension in January 2023.
i was 66 at the end of that year.
I finally got a reply and was told to send the money in October 2023.
The cheque was cashed within a week.
The back pension and new rate were not applied until September 2024.

So if you do pay back years be warned you may not see it reflected on your forecast for quite a while.

If one opted out of SERPS for 2 or 3 years early in ones career, but still have 35yrs + of full (non opted out) contributions, is full pension without deductions still payable?

Check online where it shows the years and see if it says complete next to the year. But since it’s saying you can’t improve your forecast, you would presume you’ve paid in enough years. I get mine in 3 years time and mine is saying the same, I know I’ve worked enough years since I was 16, but I last worked in 2018, so I’m just hoping they don’t change the rules again.

Yes, even if the state pension stays at the age now you'd be fine with the amount of time you have to make up those years. I have 3 missed years for uni (which I can't now repay as pre 2006) but having worked since graduating and now in my early 40s I've got 9 years til I qualify and 25 years til I can claim it...which feels like an impossibly long time away!

I tried to do this a few years ago when I spotted the uni gaps and they don't let you top up for gaps while you were a student so you haven't missed anything! Wish they made it clearer though, took me some digging and phone calls to find out for sure!

I personally don’t see the point in anyone younger plugging any gaps. Not big expensive ones anyway. I doubt state pension will be a thing in 30+ years. It tells you to pay the gaps but then says the pension is not a guarantee. So someone could spend a few thousand and in the future end up with no state pension at all. So that money could have been put in savings or their private pension but instead they may as well have set fire to it.

The other thing is, if you’re poor and don’t have a private pension, you’d just get pension credits anyway to top the state pension anyway.

In my opinion the only people who would benefit from topping up missed years are those due to retire in the next 10 years.

I could be wrong. But I think anyone under 50 is screwed when it comes to state pension.

Oh no has this come around already! It was extended a couple years ago, was hoping I would have more money by the time the extension ran out again

@Spicykitten thank you for

I cropped those parts out. I’ve paid in for 6 full years (this year is my 7th). 29 years to go, which is a kick in the teeth since I’m shattered already…

Similar age and sadly feel the same, but until it changes we just have to go along with it and hope for the best!

@Spicykitten does it say you're there already then? It doesn't say you need to earn more?

I'm not normally a cynical type but do we trust the government to give us state pension and not phase it out to anyone who has a private pension? I'm 51.