State Pension Gaps?

reggie4

Hi All,

I'm trying to work out if I have any gaps in my state pension.

I've done the online forcast e-service, but don't fully understand the results.

I am 42 years old and 43 this august. I was a student in the early 90s and remember getting a letter telling me there were gaps in my pension, but I did not understand it. I had various summer jobs, but I don't understand why there should be gaps.

It says:

• We estimate that your State Pension, based on your National Insurance contributions record to date, is £105.05 a
  week
  
• We estimate that your additional State Pension and Graduated Retirement Benefit, based on your National
  Insurance contributions record to date, is £25.88 a week.
  
• I have 21 qualifying years worth £79.17/week
  
• The full basic State Pension in 2014/2015 is £113.10 a week. If the amount shown above is less than this, it may
  increase if further qualifying years are added to your National Insurance contributions record.
  

1) Does this suggest to you that there are gaps?
2) How can I buy back these gaps and is it worth doing?

Kind Regards,

Reggie.

jem16

reggie4 wrote: »

1) Does this suggest to you that there are gaps?

Not at this point. You have 21 years and you're only 42 so that suggests you started work when you were 21.

2) How can I buy back these gaps and is it worth doing?

I wouldn't see any need at the moment even if there were gaps. You have 21 years and you will need 35 years - plenty of time to get them as you're only 42.

JezR

At the time you got your letter you would have needed 44 years of NI for a full basic state pension, which why potentially it was more important to consider gaps, but even then you probably wouldn't have needed to pay any voluntarily.

The gaps would have been your university years where your summer jobs had insufficient income to count. Prior to this between 16-18 you would have qualified for a credit for this period.

saver861

reggie4 wrote: »

1) Does this suggest to you that there are gaps?
2) How can I buy back these gaps and is it worth doing?

At 42 you have potentially another 25 years working life - ample time to make up years for a full pension on the new scheme from 2016.

You could check to see how much is missing from any of those incomplete years - it may be only a few weeks and thus low cost to make up the full year.

I'd then check how your foundation amount will come out in the 2016 change. I suspect there will be no advantage to you in making up any additional years but if you get it call clarified then you know you won't have missed out on anything.

mgdavid

Shouldn't the OP have 3 NI credit years from 18 to 21 if he was in full-time education? Maybe he is 3 years short?
OP - you need to check your NI records, not your pension forecast. You can do it here:
https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

jamesd

Don't consider buying more years, as others have written you have plenty of time to get to the current maximum requirement for the flat rate state pension system that will currently apply to you when you reach your state pension age.

If you did need more because you stopped working and didn't claim unemployment or disability benefits that would get you credits automatically the cheapest way to get more would be to make self-employed contributions.

You can ask for a National Insurance statement to find out what happened. No need to wonder, just ask and be certain.

The way NI works is in whole years that count or not. In each year you need to have had a certain amount of income to qualify, the Lower Earnings Limit. That was £97 a week in 2010/11. From 1978 onwards a year was "qualifying" if they had earnings of at least 52 times that minimum income. From 1975/6 to 1977./78 it was 50 times. If you have that, the whole year counts. If you don't, for many years you would get a letter telling you about a shortfall and offering to let you pay for however many weeks-equivalent were needed to make the year count. Then a computer system change stopped those letters from being sent.

In addition there was a system of Juvenile Credits then replaced by Starting Credits that would pay young people for up to three years of NI credits even if they didn't otherwise qualify, starting from their 16th birthday.

A gap would be most likely if you were a full time student and not claiming unemployment benefit or income support, nor working enough so that the combination got a year to count.

xylophone

Shouldn't the OP have 3 NI credit years from 18 to 21 if he was in full-time education? Maybe he is 3 years short?

http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/national-insurance-and-your-state-pension-statement

"You will not normally receive NI credits for any time spent at university.

In certain circumstances you may have been awarded National Insurance credits for the tax years during which you had your 16th, 17th and 18th birthdays. These are known as ‘starting credits’. New awards of starting credits ceased on 6 April 2010."

From Northern Ireland site but the case for the UK too.

xylophone

OP - re new state pension
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181237/single-tier-pension-fact-sheet.pdf

david78

mgdavid wrote: »

Shouldn't the OP have 3 NI credit years from 18 to 21 if he was in full-time education?

No. But if your old enough, you automatically get the years in which your 16th, 17th and 18th birthdays occurred (whether you worked or stayed at school), so some of the years could be from when the OP was at school.