Pension contributions gaps

[LivelyBlake]

Hi, I am after some advice re. the new state pension.

I have checked my state pension records online and by the time I retire I will have just above 35 years worth of contributions.

However my records show that I have some gaps that I could cover now before the April deadline.

Should I pay now for these just in case the government rises the required number of years for a full pension?

thanks!

The Money Saving Expert website has a whole section on this which might provide the answer.

It’s a good question.

No one knows what will happen.

If the number of years does increase, you won’t be worse off. It increased from 30 to 35 years, but the 35 years gives a better pension. It’s also highly likely that there would be a mechanism whereby you could purchase additional years to get to the higher number of years and higher pension value if you haven’t already retired by the time the hypothetical increase happens.

IMO continually raising the pension age is more likely as is some kind of additional taxation (like NI for pensioners).

If you have spare money to invest now, it’s worth taking advantage of current pension rules and investing that additional money in your workplace pension, LISA or SIPP.

If you take a good look at the record you may find that some years are cheaper to purchase than others, so it might be more worth it for a year that cost £30 than one that costs £100s.