To ask how many National Insurance credits you have?

[CatteryCatz]

I’ve just turned 29 and I have 7 National Insurance credits (full years).

I thought it seemed quite bad, but I worked part time at uni, but didn’t meet the threshold for credits for those years. All of my years are full since then.

It’s a shame that National Insurance credits aren’t given when at uni/college.

I'm 43 and have 23 qualifying years so far, including when I was still in full time education.

I have to admit this thread had me googling because I had no idea how I find this out. Does it matter how much/little you paid in each full year?

looks like I have 27 full years. I’m 43 so that’s counted my Saturday job from age 16 through uni too. I think I thought it wouldn’t because the hours were so low and so was the pay. On the plus side I should get full pension when in 68 but my private pension through my employer was rubbish for the first 12 years of my career, which is depressing.

I’m 39 and have 23 years of full contributions, not that I think the state pension will still exist when I’m 68!

I can't check officially as I don't have the ID required to make a government gateway account. But am I right in assuming I should have 16 years if I've been claiming ESA since I was 19?

Can you link to the page on the gov website? I started work in 1991 (I'm 50), and have to have 35 years worth. What coincidence would there be?

I appear to have 29 full years so far and need 1 more full year to qualify for the full pension. I am 45 yrs old.

49 years and have another 18 months before I can claim a government pension. Stop your whinging.

I'm also 29, nearly 30. I have 12 full years and 2 years that say "year is not full" so dont think they count

39 years contributing, according to my HMRC account, but only 36 of them are 'full'. No credit for the years I was at university. Surprised to see that I have full credit for the tax year I turned 16, although my birthday is only just within the financial year. I was still at school but had a Saturday job in a chain store from 15. I'd always assumed you only started earning credits at 16.

I’m 56 and have 33 years, I need 35 for a full state pension.

this isn't correct.

I'm 50 and have 32 years. My GGW account states I need 35 years to get full pension.

Everyone needs to check their GGW account for their own personal position.

they don't but you can add to them so it makes up a full year. My DH did this just before retirement - was able to top up 11 years(usually you can only go back 6 years)

It has almost doubled his pension and only took 2.3 years to earn back what he paid extra so now everything else is a bonus

Do you mean 18 years?.😅

If you go onto your Government gateway account. State pension page it will have links explaining different scenarios. As i said you needing 35 years is purely a coincidence, before 2016 30 full years were needed for full Basic state pension. When everyone had the calculation done in 2016 some people already had enough for full New state pension. Some needed more, generally if they were contracted out of the additional state pension (SERPS) they would need more years. Yours being exactly 35 years is just coincidental that it matches what someone starting their record after 2016.

There's loads of information on the money board here or on momey saving expert.

I’m not understanding what you mean by coincidence.

What's not correct about what i said? Coincidentally YOU need 35 years. The guaranteed 35 years and you get a full state pension only applies to people with no NI record before 2016.

No - I have 49 years of NI credits and 18 months before I reach government retirement age. What don’t you understand about that?

My HMRC account doesn’t say how many credits I have. It does say I have 3 more years of contributions to get before 2047 to get full state pension. I’m 45.
Annoyingly in 2000 I have missed that year for contributions even though I worked full time.

I really don't know ow how to explain it any more simply

Someone who had never paid a NI contribution before 2016 will definitely need 35 years of NI contributions or credits in order to get the full New State Pension.

Someone who worked and paid contributions before 2016 may need anything from 29 years to 49 years of contributions in order to receive the full New State Pension.

If you started paying NI prior to 2016, have checked your record and it says you personally need 35 years then it is nothing more than a coincidence that the amount that your personal record comes to is exactly the same as what is needed by someone who didn't state paying until 2016.
Someone else born on the same day as you, starting work on the same day as you may well have a completely different record depending on whether they had ever been contracted out. They might need 29 or 37 or 41 years.

12 years, I’m 31. Guess my part time hours weren’t enough from 15–18 and then I didn’t work much for a year as I was injured in a bad accident.

I have 42 years of full national insurance payments. Still have a while to go. Stop being a winny winge.

You need 35 years not 30 I’m afraid.

I didn’t start this thread to whinge, it was started out of curiosity!

I have 46 years. Will probably retire with a total of 47 or 48 years.

I work in pensions and what @rainbowunicorn is saying is correct. There was a quite complicated calculation done when the New State Pension was introduced. If you contracted out of SERPS you are likely to need more than 35 years. I hate trying to explain this to my clients as for some reason everyone thinks it's universally 35 years is required.