State Pension shortfall

EAWJ

Many thanks for your interest Xylophone.    I reach SPA on 26.5.2021

   I hope the following is what you are asking:

SPF says:   You need to continue to contribute National Insurance to reach your forecast.  Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2020.    £163.98 a week.   Forecast if you contribute until 5 April 2021       £168.99 a week               £168.99 is the most you can get

NI Record says:        You have:     33 years of full contributions         1 year to contribute before 5 April 2021       13 years when you did not contribute enough.

I have written to Future Pensions Centre, but only just last week.   I wrote almost exactly what I wrote above.    I await their response.   Meantime I am trying to gather an argument because last time I spoke to them, a few years ago,  they said "If you didn't claim Child Benefit for 1987-88 and 1988-89, then you are not entitled to NI Credit Years".   But I was eligible for Child Benefit in 1987-88 and 1988-89, I just didn't know it and didn't claim.   I just cannot accept that I am not entitled to NI Credit years for those two years.   That would mean I not only lost out on Child Benefit at the time, but am also going to lose out on State Pension.    Must be some mistake??

bigadaj

My understanding is that if you didn't claim it then you did'nt get the credit and so wouldn't get the qualifying years. It will be dependent on claiming rather than being entitled because it's obviously far easier for them to confirm it, but also because others could have claimed it, could have been the father if the mother was working, or potentially grandparents f they had an incomplete NI record and were looking after the kid/s whist the parents were working for example.

molerat

I very much doubt you will get anywhere with that argument.  Even today those with a high(ish) income spouse still have to claim child benefit to get the NI credits even though they will not actually get the money. Lots of things we do and choices we make or fail to make have knock on effects way down the line, paying the married woman's small stamp for instance.  Look on the bright side, if you make up this year it is only £6.21 short (speaking as someone who gets £168.63 with 42 years of contributions).

EAWJ

bigadaj and molerat you make very valuable points.  Thank you for your time and thoughts.   
I don't have much of a work place pension, so £6.21 a week or 3.5% loss of my state pension is significant for me.  It may be far easier for 'them' to confirm based on claims that I qualify for NI credit years, but it must be possible, even though more time consuming, to use 'eligibility along with non-claim', too.  
Government records of Child Benefit must surely follow the child, so their records will show that no-one claimed Child Benefit for any of my three children in those two years.      I will persevere with my evidence and pursuit of fairness.  There must be a lot of other people who have similar circumstances, so worth raising the issue, at least, with those who have the ability to make the system more just.