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.

Not necessarily as the poster you are replying to was paying NI before 2016 they may need less or more than 35 years.

You won’t though, at least not the state one. You have to be nearly dead to reach state retirement age 😂

Ah, sorry, I thought the 49 years was your age 😳😅

I started paying in 1998 and it says I need 35 years so I don’t understand where the 30 years number is coming from.

I've been paying NI since 1991!

Thank you. Trying to get people to understand this is a nightmare. They refuse to believe what you are saying.

Your personal record is just that personal to you. It just means that when your calculation was done in 2016 your record showed that you would need 35 years. Someone else may need 30, someone else again may have needed 40 or more. It would depend if you were ever contracted out, how long for etc.

I've been paying since 1988, not sure what your point is?

I'm mid 50s and have had full ni credits for a few years now.
Surprisingly I got some years from aged 16 to 20 when I was just doing Saturday work and some summer work. Then I also got some when I was a SAHM, through Child benefit I assume.

25 full years, I’m 41

You haven't said that you're grandparents but just in case... If your DH helps any of your kids out with childcare so they can work, see if he can get specified adult credits, which is where the "free" credit from claiming Child Benefit for a kid under 12 can be given to a family member rather than lost by the parent paying NI. It's super simple,there's no particular amount he'd have to look after the grandkids (once a week after school, or during school hols is enough) www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-specified-adult-childcare-credits Best of all they only make the award if the parent definitely has achieved the full year's NI payment through employment so there's no risk (apart from the cost of a stamp to send the form off!)

I am literally quoting from the government's own forecast of my state pension which lists 29 full years (plus 2 incomplete years) and tells me I need 1 more year for the full pension...

I have full years from age 16 so I don’t understand how someone else would get to technically work less years (all things pension related baffle me but I’m getting older and trying to understand so appreciate the explanations). I’ll easily get to 35 years by the time I’m 51 (avoiding all serious illness obviously) so it’s not a massive issue, I just don’t understand.

I'm 54 and have some gaps from last 5 years. I'm not going to bother topping it up; I can live with the lower state pension. I've got two private pensions I'm living off. Who knows what's going to happen with the pension by the time your turn comes to claim it?

??!

Don't make @rainbowunicorn explain it all again. They've already been patient enough to explain over and over on this thread 😂

Don't worry about it, when you are old the state pension will probably be payable at 85 and means tested, so you won't get much.

Same as me, two more years to contribute. I was surprised (but pleased!) to have got the full whack during all the years I was a SAHM, wasn’t expecting that to be the case.

I'm ten years older than you and I'd be absolutely amazed if I got any kind of meaningful state pension in future. Ageing population, stagnating economy, massive government debt - I don't see how we'd be able afford it unless it's for the very poorest.

We are not yet - but might be in the next decade or 2 so worth knowing - thank you!

I'm 43 and only need 5 more years. I think the 2016 changes gave me extra credits because of second state pension contributions before then. Obviously I can't claim it for 25 years, so yay!

Because some people were contracted out of the second state pension. They paid lower NI during this time so the number of years needed would be more than someone who did not contract out. Some people were contracted out for longer than others so that would also impact the number er of years they needed.
You don't even need to work to get years credited as credits are given for claiming child benefit, ESA and many years other benefits.

Sorry to be dumb but what’s “contracted out” mean?

Contracted out of the Additional state pension. This was an option to pay less NI and the money was usually diverted to a workplace or private pension. If you go on to your government t gateway account it will say whether you were ever contracted out. Most people were at some point if they were working before the changes to state pension came in 2016.

Money saving expert is great for information on pensions.

Mine just says full year for each so I guess I wasn’t 🤷🏻‍♀️