Shd I pay voluntary class 2 contributions?

[sleepingbeautifully]

I'm not too sure if I should pay these... ? I've looked at HMRC but it's vague.

I'm self-employed with a small business that I'm trying to grow. My profit this year will be about £5k by April.

I also have an 8 year old so I get NI credits.

I have uni NI credits plus 14 years of PAYE plus more years self-employed credits & I'm 43.

Should I bother?! Can't seem to find the answer to this.

I topped up 3 years after finding an article on Martin Lewis MSE website that helped me calculate if it was worth it.

Yes, you really must. It goes towards your state pension and you really don't want to affect that.

Check out with HMRC. However, you should get contributions credited until youngest child is 12.

Sorry, I've just seen that you are under the threshold for payments but you can pay voluntarily. I would check with HMRC.

I've tried to call, they don't seem to understand my question!!!!

have you logged into hmrc and looked at your ni contribution history?

you only need 30 qualifying years of ni contributions to get the full pension but will probably have at least 45 years of working life in between university and retirement so it is totally ok to have a few years of no contributions. you get contributions automatically while you are claiming child benefit. only pay voluntary extra if you aren't on track to reach 30 years by the age of 67.

Check your record here and see what it comes back with.
You probably don't need to pay for ther years that you've got credits for your dc but there may be one or two years missing.
Although being cynical, I'm the same age and I'm not counting on receiving a pension by the time we get to retirement age!

I will double check my record... thanks, looks like it's probably not worth it.

... Will we get a state pension? My general approach is to hope for the best and plan for the worst. I'm hoping to grow the business and increase my private pension & ISA payments.

I think it might be 35 years now. It's pretty clear in your HMRC account anyway.

You just need to log in and look at the NI/pensions forecast section - being self employed you should already have the account and log in?

Sorry forgot to say that I agree it sounds like you don't need to pay Class 2 NI as you will have those linked to CB, 14 years of PAYE, uni credits and another 20 odd years to gain more self employed/PAYE credits, so it sounds likely that you'll get there without voluntary contributions anyway.

Look on www.gov UK
Then your National Insurance Number
Check your state pension

It will show you per year how much you have paid in

Also date you can receive your state pension & estimate of how much

Need 35 years of NI contributions for state pension

Thanks everyone who commented! I've got 20 odd years of contributions so just 15 ish to go!