I have gaps in employment on my state pensions, should I pay them now?

[Bebobasil]

I have gaps for several years. Two are still in the extended pay the extra dates.
im trying to work out if I should pay them. I don’t get dc benefit because my dh earns too much, most years are ‘full’ through employment but I had a few years between starting working age 16 and 20 where I didn’t work and these are showing as not full, two of those tax years I can pay the gap for but I only have until today to do so as that’s the hmrc deadline.
I’m 39 now.

Today is indeed your deadline, so I'd get cracking on a decision.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/

Are you in full time employment now? How many years paid in? How many still to go?

I’ve just reposted in money matter- I know the deadline is today but not sure if it’s worth me repaying it thank you

You still qualify for pension credits even if you don't get CB due to earnings - check that out.

Are you likely to return to employment after you stop qualifying for childcare credits? If so, you've got a good while before retirement so worth calculating how many years you'd need to work before you hit the maximum.

For context, I'm 52 and will have paid up for full pension in 2 years and I also have a few years gap.

So even if your DH earns over the threshold it's worth checking the child benefit allowance because you should still get a NI crédit (we claimed and then paid it back in a tax return, we had to do the tax return anyway and I was happier knowing that I would definitely get the NI credit, but you should be getting that anyway if you have a child under 12. Check).

The part years it depends how much it would cost to fill them. My instinct is that yes it is worth topping them up if it's only a little short. Full years don't bother yet. Back dating payment is always possible for the last six years, it the deadline that are six or more that is today, (up to about 16 years I think it isn't your full history)

Oh dear I have no idea do I. I am in part time employment now which is showing up in my pension years as ‘full’ , have never claimed any for of benefits or credits etc all years are full except for 4. Only 2 can I pay for now.

1 of those years I was at university but I dropped out after a year so I’m not sure if I should have got educational credits for that one year but no idea how’d I’d sort that.

My dc is 12 in May but I almost entirely worked ft until recently so luckily all of those years I have full pension for. Thank you so much for this advice I feel so out of my depth with it

Sorry typo I have never claimed any for of benefits ever…

You can claim child benefit no matter how much you earn. It just means you have to pay the full amount back every year. You will then get pension credits, even when you are having to pay it all back.

Will you manage to get 35 years in, in total anyway? If so, don't.

How many years do you currently have? The max is 35, so if you're very likely to reach that then any payment you make today will be a nice little gift to the government.

However, if you're planning to retire very early it might be worth it.

I would pay them if you can afford it. It is currently 35 years, but used to be 40 and any Government could increase it again at any time.

@GOODCAT my dh is telling me don’t bother as I have 14 years left to work to reach my total. But I’d rather not insist on working that long if u can help it.
dh also told me not to claim dc benefit as he’d have to do something to register it or something. I don’t actually know.

I would pay the contributions today, yes.

I'd also be claiming the Class 1 credit via child benefit and paying back the money.

Pretty sure you can register for cb but not claim the money if over threshold. That said even if you are working part time you’ll likely be fine as threshold is really low.

Even if you want to pay it - you need to call the DWP number on the HMRC site and they will call you back. It can take weeks. You can simply log the call today (so you meet the deadline) and you can decide when they call you depending on what they say the amounts will be. Keep your options open.

You don't get education credits for university. If you are working and therefore getting credits that way, and that is likely to stay that way then no it isn't worth it. You will have plenty of time to get full credits for a full pension. The childcare credits only matter if you weren't earning enough to get them through workplace contributions, it sounds as though you were.
If I explain mine that might help you.
I have gaps in my employment history because I took time off when my DC were small but my NI record for those years is full because of childcare credits.
I have a NI gap from my years at university but they are too long ago to do anything about.
I have current NI gaps because I am not earning enough to get a NI credit and my DC are over 12 but it's not worth paying to fill those because I still have plenty of time to get a higher paying job that will mean I pay/NI credits and therefore a full pension when I am of retirement age. I am 46, when I checked it said I need ten more years of contributions for a full state pension at 67.
Does that help?

You don't have to claim Child benefit to get the NI credit though. If you go on the government website it will explain that.

There’s no credits for those in education, unfortunately. I learned that the hard way. I worked part time, whilst I was at university, but I didn’t earn enough to earn NI credits at that time.

I won’t be paying for the missing credits - they are just too expensive. I have plenty of time to make up for them since I’m in my late 20s.

It’s possible to make a credit-only claim for benefits if you aren’t currently working, but don’t qualify for paid benefits. Hope this helps someone.

Well you probably won’t be able to get the reference number to pay today as it’s impossible to get through to them! You can request a call back online, which counts as having met the deadline, but the estimate for that is an 8 week wait so you have 8 weeks to make up your mind 😂

What does your forecast say? How many more years do you need to get the full state pensions? Do you need the full 14 years?

You can always top up some of those 14 years if you don’t have a full year.

How much will it cost to top up the missing years? It might be worth it if it is a lot cheaper than the cost of making voluntary contributions in the future.

What years are you considering topping up? If it is less than 6 years ago, you can still top up them next year.

Thanks. My total years says 30 and that I’d have another 14 full years to go if I want the maximum pension (if I don’t pay up now) I have worked the whole time since dc was 6mo so those years are full

The years in question that I believe I can pay for are 2007-2008 & the year after that hence my panicking today the deadline.

I paid for three years I think (I did it last year), but they were years where there was a bit missing, and it cost around the same as one year's NI to make up the shortfall on all three.

Also, if I hadn't paid them I would have had to make sure I paid full NI every year until retirement to make sure I'd get the full State Pension.

I wanted a buffer just in case, which was another reason I decided to pay.

I’ve taken the advice and applied online on DWP for a call back. Feeling better now. Hopefully they’ll take ages because I’m so undecided, Really appreciate the advice here!

35 years is only for those who start paying in 2016. It seems to be harder to dispel than the common law wife myth

check your forecast properly and see how many more years you need to pay
you can do this on the Government Gateway.

read the whole thing, not just the headline box. Read the bit below for how many more years you need to pay NI

It would be unusual to need another 14 years to receive the full state pension if you already have 30 years.

The rules changed in 2016 so you currently need 35 full years to receive the full state pension if you started paying NI after 2016. DWP did some calculation in to work out how many years people whose NI record started before 2016 need to pay. I have yet to find an explanation of how they do that and even my accountant is baffled 🤷‍♀️Some people seem to need less than 35, others more…

Out if interest, what is your current forecast if you pay no more NI before retirement (it tells you on the forecast)? That will give you a rough idea of how many more full years you need.

Not necessarily, @redfishcat. My forecast tells me how many more years I need to receive the full state pension (less than the number of years before I reach retirement age). DB needs to top up as he doesn’t have enough full years left before retirement to contribute enough to receive the full state pension but it doesn’t specify how many years short he is, just “if you contribute for X more years until XXXX (year he reaches retirement age), you will get X”.