State pension forecast

Dandelion1_2

My husband has looked up his state pension forecast. It says that his forecast is £181.31. Estimate based on NI record to 5th April 2021 is £170.73. Forecast if he contributes to 5th April 2023 is £181.31.,Then it says the most he can increase his forecast to is £185.15.
He was contracted out for a number of years. He is retired and due to receive his state pension in just under 2 years. How do we know how much to contribute to maximise his state pension and what is the maximum that he could receive?
We just don’t understand the 3 different amounts. We’ve tried phoning the help line but haven’t yet been able to get through. Any help would be appreciated.

Audaxer

Another 2 years of NI payments will increase his SP by £5.29 per week for each year, which will get him from £170.73 to £181.31. If he can pay for a further year that will take him up to the maximum of £185.15, which mean he will only get £3.84 pw for the further year's contribution, which still may be worth paying.

However, does his NI record show any gaps, or are all the years to date full contributions?

If he has just retired and was working up until April this year, it may be that this year's NI has still to be added to his forecast, which would mean he needs only 2 years payments to get to the maximum £185.15.

Linton

To finjd out exactly what he needs to contribute in voluntary NI to bring his State Pension up to the maximum he should talk to the Future Pensions Centre: https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre.

The 3 figures are: £170.73 is the amount he has earned up to April 2021.
The NI for 2021/2022 hasnt yet been included and he will get £5.29 from that.  
The he will get another £5.29 for the tax year 2022/2023 making the total of £181.31

A further year would get him sufficient to reach the maximum SP of 185.15.  Depending on exactly when he is due to reach SP age (before or after the start of the 2024/2025 tax year) this extra year could be 2023/2024 or there could be a previous year for which he did not pay sufficient NI.

The future pensions centre should be able to explain exactly.

Audaxer

Linton said:

The he will get another £5.29 for the tax year 2022/2023 making the total of £181.31

As he is retired he my have to make a voluntary NI payment to cover the tax year 2022/2023, but there is no desperate rush to make that payment. 

Dandelion1_2

Thank you. That has really helped us understand the different figures! He has been retired for several years so is not making any contributions now. He has 41 years of contributions but some were contracted out. We’ll chat to the future pensions centre to find out what he needs to pay.

Audaxer

Dandelion1_2 said:

Thank you. That has really helped us understand the different figures! He has been retired for several years so is not making any contributions now. He has 41 years of contributions but some were contracted out. We’ll chat to the future pensions centre to find out what he needs to pay.

It's definitely worth paying for the extra years to get up to the maximum SP. I'm retired and paying roughly £800 per year voluntary NI contributions for an extra £5.29 per week (£275 per year) for each year of voluntary contributions. So each year's contributions will be recovered in less than 4 years, even if that future pension income is subject to tax, as it will be in my case.