State Pension and NI Contributions

daddum

Decided to check my state pension calculation on gov website
it says that i have got 36 years of contributions Yipeee !
but then it says i wont get full state pension, but if i keep on contributing and fill the gaps in my contributions then i can get the full state pension

I worked out the reason i dont get full pension is because i contracted out in the past

however its the gaps that concern me

I took early retirement at 50 so have a couple of pensions that i am paid
I also have a very small job that pays me around £3.5 k per annum, which is below the threshold for paying NI

however when i looked at my NI gaps i see that some years there is a shortfall of around £500 and other years its less
so i checked if i was paying any NI and it appears that i do pay NI from the small job, so questions are

1. as my income from paid work is only £3500 a year, should i be paying any NI ? do they add my pension onto this to put me over the threshold for NI ?
2. even if i am paying around £300 NI a year, why do the gaps in my NI contributions vary so much, from £13 to over £500 ?
3. to get the ful amount that i can i will have to pay £3200 approx, and when i get my state pension it will take 1.8 years to get this back, but as i dont get my state pension for another 7 years, will the goal posts have been moved so is it worth paying it?

hope someone can help !

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

NI is based on weekly wages, not annual. If you earn your £3500pa in lumps (rather than a constant £70pw) you could be paying NI on some or all of it.

molerat

1.  NI is deducted on a per pay packet basis so if you are paid irregular amounts you will pay / get credits for some weeks and not others.  Only a full year counts so will need topping up if necessary.

2  see 1, you could pay the same amount overall and get less weeks - pay 1p NI each week for 20 weeks that is 20 weeks, pay £10 on only 1 week in a year that is only 1 week. There is also the LEL where you get credited with a week when you earn over £120 pw without paying.

3  Unlikely the goal posts will move with less than 10 years notice after the stink last time.

Post up the full details of your forecast and gaps / prices and someone will point you in the right direction.