NI contributions - can I find out why I have gaps in my record?

[Frooa]

I've just checked my NI record and it's all full except for two years. HMRC says I need to pay £824 for each of these years if I want to do voluntary contributions, so I assume as that's the full amount that their records show I earned nothing in those years.
However I was actually employed in full time work (a single job I held for years with no change of employment). I did only earn about 50p per hour over min wage, but is it the case that min wage is not enough to contribute anything whatsoever to the state pension? I am confused as surely half the country would be screwed by this? Or has my employer made a mistake somehow?
If it's a mistake, how do I prove it? I don't have payslips as it's nearly twenty years ago and I thought I was doing okay by keeping ten years of payslips 🙄 The employer is out of business now so I can't contact them. I haven't yet sacrificed half a day to try to get through to HMRC but if people think it's worth begging them to believe me with no evidence, I will.
Or does this just cost me £1650 to put right?

Have you got any payslips from that time that show your NI contributions?

I don’t know the answer to your question, but are you still working now? If so, and you are going to carry on for long enough to make up the full no of years you need, you don’t need to worry.

Do you actually need those years to qualify for your full pension?

Ring them up. I found them very helpful. I've just paid for two missing years, all I needed to do. Whatever you do needs to be done before April 5th.

This. Surely if you’re going to work another two years you’ll reach the max and the whole thing is moot.

you only need to worry about it if you want to retire before your contributions are maxed out. Once you hit the maximum you keep contributing with no additional benefit, so you’ll be paying 1600 for no extra pension.

How many years do you need to contribute to and how many years do you have until your retirement age. You only need 35 full years.

For those missing years, were you contracted out? People working in the Public sector, and universities among others, payed into their private pension through work which took them out of the state pension.

You only need 35 years before your state pension age. Most people can miss a few years and still achieve this. You also get credits if you were claiming child benefit a child under 12. If you still think you need those missing years then phone them before 5 April with as much information as possible. You currently get credits as long as your income is about 10 hours per week at minimum wage.

How old are you?

I've got the full 35 yrs and was surprised as I had 7 yrs out as a sahm.

Sorry, I'm 38 and to get 35 years of contributions I would now need to work until I'm 58 without any gaps. Fine in theory as I don't intend to retire early, but if anything unexpected happens not so good (illness, caring, bereavement, whatever).
I feel that since I did work full time I SHOULD have full contributions. I feel cheated!! Is it really worth phoning them to see if they'll just take my word for it?

You get credit for time off if you had a child under 16 historically or under 12 more recently

10 hours per week? I did 35! Do you know if 35 hours has always been enough to earn full contributions (as far back as 2007)? I couldn't find this info online.

Were you working in the same place before and after the missing years or was it a different employer where you worked only for those two years. Have you any other evidence as to where you were working and how much you were earning, i.e. bank statements??

HMRC/DWP do make mistakes, especially going back in time so long. It was the days when HMRC/DWP would manually enter payroll details from end of year returns, often submitted on paper, by employers, so there are many points where mistakes could have been made, i.e. wrong national insurance number keyed in, wrong figures entered on your record, etc. Or the mistake could have been the employer - i.e. same kind of thing, wrong Ni No on the paperwork, etc.

HMRC/DWP won't have the paperwork going back 20 years either, so it's not as if they can send someone down to the archives to dig around for the paperwork!

Sometimes they'll adjust your earnings history/record if it's clear you were working and earning enough to qualify for NIC credits so it's well worth you ringing them to highlight the problem and see what they suggest.

Otherwise, it's a matter of paying for the missing years IF you need them, i.e. if you're not going to have enough qualifying years anyway by the time you retire. If you've been working pretty steadily for a full working life, with only "time out" for caring responsibilities where you'll have been eligible for credits for a number of years, then you may well end up with full state pension anyway, even without paying for the missing two years.

Thank you this is so helpful! I have got bank statements. And yes, I worked there for four years, both before and after the two gap years, so hopefully that will prove it. You are a star!

I would write to them - state you were employed full time by x company from years x - y continuously with no gaps, and state that the records online are incorrect in showing the years “incomplete”.

Yes this was what I was going to say to the Op.
You get credits if you are looking after children and for other things, eg being a carer, and other reasons.

I don't know for sure the rules that far back. It may have been 16 hours but definitely 35 hours would have been enough.

Bloody hell, read the op.

Suitably admonished, thank you

Can you even make up missing years that long ago?

I have some incomplete years from when I was a student, but it’s too long ago now to pay the contributions to fill the years.

my plan is to retire whenever I choose, hopefully at 55/60. I will still be short some years but if keep paying the no contributions by the time I actually get the pension I should have the full 35 years.

Yes, you can go back to 2006, but you only have until 5th Apr to do it. After that you can only pay 6 years back generally.