State Pension says I am nearly there, but how??

[rak5a]

As everyone is doing now I just checked my NI record to make sure I didn't need to make up any years. It says I get the full pension if I have 3 more full years. However I only moved to the UK in 2000 and have no gaps, but that's only 24 years of contributions. I thought you needed 35 to get the full pension? I still have 20 (!!) years until retirement so it's not an issue but why does it say I need less than 35?? Even checking against my NI record proves that I don't have more than 24. But the calculator clearly says I only need 3 more full years to get the max at retirement. Is it a glitch?

It’s 30 if you started paying NI before April 2016.

Can’t help with the rest of it. Sorry.

The 35 years only applies to people who started their national insurance record after 2016. Everybody else is transitional arrangements to reflect your historic entitlement to SERPS and S2P plus the effect of being contracted out. I practice, this means you could need anywhere between 29 and 50 years to reach your maximum pension. So it sounds correct.

It isn't necessarily 30 in these circumstances. For anyone with contributions before 2016 it will vary some people only need 28 or 29 and others can need over 40. There is no-one size fits all.

Thank you everyone - that's so helpful and solves the mysetery for me!!

Some countries have reciprocal arrangements with the UK too.

You can use up to ten years ni contributions from certain other countries too.
Did you work prior to the UK ?

Yep. I had thirty five years employed contributions in the pre 2016 scheme and I'm old enough to have been given credits while in education post 16 so probably more like 37 or 38.

However the pre 2016 employment was contracted out as I was accruing years in the employer's scheme.

I hit pension age in December 2025 but only scrape home for the full state pension.

It was only 30 to get the full 'basic' pension amount if you actually reached State Pension Age between 6th April 2010 and 5th April 2016. Prior to that you needed 39 years if your were female and 44 if you were male.

The new State Pension (nSP) introduced on 6th April 2016 was designed to simplify things by doing away with contracting in and out , SERPs / S2P etc and anyone who started their working lives after that date will need 35 years to get the full nSP amount.

For the majority who have been contributing under both the old and new systems, 'transitional rules' apply. Two calculations were made on 6th April 2016, one using the old rules (that included a maximum of 30 years) and one using the new rules (with a maximum of 35). The calculations included adjustments for any SERPS/S2P built up under the old system if you had been contracted in, and also if you had been contracted out and so paid a lower rate of NI. Whichever was the higher became your starting amount and each year of NI since then adds 1/35th of the current SP amount until you reach the maximum (some peoples starting amount may have already been higher than that and that became a 'protected payment'.

The result of these 'transitional rules' is that anyone born last century who did not reach SPA prior to 2016 may need anything from 29 to 50 years to get the full amount, depending on their individual NI records. That's why everyone needs to check their individual forecasts (and not just count how many years they have)
Check your State Pension forecast - GOV.UK

By the time I get the state pension I would have paid 48 years of NI. If I were to stop working today I would still qualify to the maximum state pension.

Such is life.

You are not just paying NI for state pension though so not sure what your point is?