National Insurance question - how many more years do I need to pay?

[DDoOneRon]

I've been on the government's NI checker site. It says the following.

You have:

• 23 years of full contributions
• 25 years to contribute before 5 April 2047
• 4 years when you did not contribute enough

(The 4 years refers to when I was studying for my first degree, I got three full years before then. Not sure why I didn't get full contributions back then).

Am I right in understanding I need to pay NI every year for the next 25 years? Everywhere I look says you need only 35 years in total.

The 25 years refers to the number of years you have left to work before your normal retirement age of 5 April 2047. You only need to make full NI contributions for 12 more years to be entitled to a full pension. Unless the government moves the goalposts again.

You need to go back onto the Government Gateway and do a pension forecast which will tell you how many more years you need. For anyone with an NI record prior to 2016 the 35 years may not be enough if you were contracted out.

Agree with PupInAPram. Also we are approaching the end of the NI 'contribution year' (April 5), so (assuming you have sufficient contributions in the 22/23 year) you will then have 24 years of full contributions (though it usually takes a few months for your updated record to show on the Gov website.

Ah, thank you, this makes sense.
My forecast says I have another 11 years needed, and yes I was contracted out. I need to go and look at what that means...

I was wondering this too. I looked at the NI checker thing and it said that I have a full year of missed contributions in 1999. I was working full time for an insurance company for the full year and the company closed 18 years ago so no way of getting that back. Annoying.

The contracted out amount should show up in the government portal - under COPE.

@DDoOneRon contracted out relates to NI contributions. If you were in a works pension you are likely to be contracted out, so paid slightly lower NI contributions. Contracted in meant you were contracted into SERPS, the state scheme.

@Sunshinenotrain if you have your P60 for that year you can send a copy to HMRC and you will have your NI record updated. I have all of mine but know that is rare.

Makes me glad I'm a hoarder and keep everything tbh, including decades of payslips. Drives OH mad, but govt depts make errors unfortunately.

@Hooklander yes gmt depts make mistakes, but some employers commit fraud and deduct tax and NI but don’t pay it to HMRC. As long as you have P60 showing it was deducted HMRC will honour it on your record.

Its why I advise everyone to check their NI record annually.

Out of interest how would I have checked in the early 2000s do you think? Guess there would have been a number to call?

@DDoOneRon From the 1980s onwards I used to do a pensions check by completing paper from BR19. This form is still used today, but is online. My memory is that the results showed incomplete years of NI for pension purposes.

I also know in the 1980s those with part years used to get a letter advising them how much it would cost to make a full year for pension and benefits purposes. I think this still happens now, but I didn’t get one when 2021/22 was a part year for me.

I firmly believe part of the school curriculum should include finances including wage slips, P60s, pensions etc. and importance of record checking and keeping.

I was in the Caribbean in January and did day trips on several islands. All of the local guides talked about their National Insurance Contributions, State Pensions and Education systems. There was clearly a strong similarity to our systems but what was impressive was how they all understood the link from NI to pension.

Thank you for your informative reply.

The pensions forecaster thing on the NI website is unnecessarily unclear.

Why they can't add a line that says 'You currently need 7 more qualifying years for full pension' is beyond me.

And don't get me started on how complicated they make it to pay extra contributions!

Roughly speaking the pension goes up by about £5 and a bit per qualifying year, up to a max of £185.

There is another page on there which is clearer and tells you how many years you have to pay. I'm 52, and this is my forecast. I suspect yours will be similar to mine (I did have 6 missing years but 4 of those were too long ago). My youngest turned 12 recently so I need to pay for the next two years myself as I won't get the exemption for him any more.

:

You have to pay NI until you reach the retirement age, even if you have paid in for enough years for a full pension. You do not get any increased pension for any extra years you pay in.

if earning you have to pay ...