Hi all, wondering if anyone is in a similar position and is wondering whether it's worth voluntarily paying missing NIC years (or part-paying to top up partial years to full years).
I'm 40 with 18 years of paid up NIC contributions, and will (unfortunately!) be working still for at least another 20 years. As someone who is still quite young and will 'have time' to organically reach 35+ years of NIC contributions through continuing to work I don't think it would be objectively recommended for me to voluntarily top up part years from when I was younger as it seems highly likely I'll get to 35 years of NIC contributions anyway. (35 years is the current minimum number of years NIC you need to have paid to qualify for the new state pension).
However, I do wonder - when the rules inevitably change (as they surely will at some point) - whether they might only change in relation to people who have less than X number of years NI already paid. Anyone else reckon the more years NI you have paid up at the point they change the rules, the better protected you might be about the impact of any changes? The other thing that I suppose could happen is that they change the minimum required number of NI years to say 40 years instead of 35 and its cheaper to buy the extra years now.
Appreciate things can change and who knows if many of us will be eligible for the new state pension at all.
Would be grateful to know if anyone else is considering voluntarily topping up purely to potentially protect themselves against future changes to the rules (rather than because they are and will be short of the minimum 35 years unless they chose to do so). It's not a lot of money from our budget and we can afford it - just confused to know what's for the best.