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

[AlisonWhatIsTheMatter]

I’ve checked mine and even though I was advised to contract out of SERPS in the late 80s, (currently resting in Phoenix Life) I’m not missing any years of contributions ( I think) my forecast on GOV.UK states I cannot improve my forecast anymore.

I was reminded to check again last night after watching Martin Lewis.

Just a reminder to check your contributions before April 2025 otherwise you might not get another chance to ‘plug in’ any gaps.

I’ve attached my GOV.UK forecast so you can compare what yours states.

If only retirement age was still at 60! I’d have 5 years to go. 😩

I assume if you already have the required 35 years of contribution it would be totally pointless purchasing any missing years, however recent?

I was made redundant during Covid so my recent record is patchy with missing years.

I disagree with your advice. The poster is only in their 30's.

You seem to be assuming that pension deductions from your salary - NI contributions - stop when you have completed 35 years' worth of contributions. This is not correct, NI deductions will continue until you reach state pension age (under current rules). If you top up your previous years and you are suddenly unable to work for evermore, it might affect your pension positively. If you continue to work until you are 67, 68 or whatever random ridiculous age the government decides by the time you get there, your partly funded years won't matter at all unless you have not got 35 (or however many years it is by then) fully funded years.

This is not correct advice as the pp has built up years before 2016. The 35 years only applies to people who started paying NI from 2016. If her forecast says she can't increase the forecast anymore then she has enough qualifying years already. People who were already paying NI before 2016 had a recalculation done when the new state pension came in. Some needed less and some needed more than 35 years depending on their circumstances.

I think that's the whole point of the OP's website link - the website will answer this question for you! (My understanding is that you are correct, but why not check?)

So surely it is better to have your full years completed as soon as you can complete them- then, as you get older you can choose to work part-time or retire early with a private pension knowing you have a full-state pension contribution paid already when you reach the required age?

Missing contributions in your 20s shouldn’t matter, as even at 30 you would expect to have at least 35 working years left to make up the contributions - I knew and didn’t bother topping up as I’ll get enough years anyway so it would have been a waste.

If you pay contributions for another 19 years then you will get the full amount. If you were to never pay another NI in your life from this moment on you would get the £106 shown in the screenshot. The amount as it stands will increase with each year you pay NI up to the max. Once you have paid enough years it will say you can't increase your forecast anymore.

It is the vast numbers of people who do not work, who live on benefits, contribute nothing to the state and leech money out of it who create our issues with the state pension. We can not keep carrying these people.

There are many reasons for our pension problem but I think the main one is people are living longer, so they are receiving their pension for longer. I would need to look up to confirm but since pensions form a large majority of our benefits bill I suspect pensioners are the largest group of welfare recipients in the country. I'm happy to keep carrying these people.

Why April 2025?

You would need to check your forecast depending on when you started paying NI it could be more or less than 35 years. If your forecast says you cant increase the forecast anymore then you have enough years. If not it will tell you how many more you need.

Do you need to do anything to get access to the pension forecast?

Not really as the chances are you would end up paying more than you need to. It would be better to pay class 3 at a later date than back fill a year that you might never have needed.

So - it seems to be telling me that I have 13 years left to pay to get to the full amount BUT I have another 21 years before I hit 68 (& I plan to work) so there’s not much point me paying to make up the missed 5 years at this point - am I right?! Thanks….. I’ve been worrying about this for ages so am really grateful you signposted this @AlisonWhatIsTheMatter !

I was missing a few years due to unexpectedly taking early retirement. Also I fall into the WASPI group.

I paid £4,800ish to make up the gaps, I’ll make that up in 2 ½ years. From then on I’ll be better off. Definitely worth doing.

Follow the link in the OP you will need to register for a government gateway account and then you will.have access to everything.

I have a shortage in 1998/99 but I was at college and not employed. Although it does say as long as I have 4 more full years I’ll get my full pension.

Was a while ago I first checked but think you just need to create a government gateway account. It's here https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Don’t worry you have loads of time after uni to gain enough years. It wouldn’t be cost effective to plug the gaps for those years.

Correct, as long as you make NI contributions for 13 years.

Correct

Just checking that you know that you don't stop paying once you've got 35 years?

Yeah that’s right. It’s not worth paying for gaps to be filled in that situation. It’s more relevant if you don’t have long enough left to work and have gaps.

Correct.

But when it changed from 30 to 35 years, DH went from being paid up to needing 6 more years.

I checked mine last year and plugged a gap (I worked abroad for a few years).
The uk.gov site is refreshingly straightforward.

Thanks OP, this feels like something people think we should all know, but we often don't.

Because the deadline has already been pushed back twice, at the moment it's April 2025 and then after that you would only be able to pay any missing years going back 6 years.
So it's a limited opportunity to pay for other years.

I understand the reason for the deadline being extended was that there wasn't a system set up for easy payments. It involved phoning a department, potentially being told to phone another department, getting a reference number etc, and basically not enough staff to actually provide the service.