NI contributions

molerat

You need 7 years to reach the max.  All those years must come from 2016-17 and later, earlier years will not add to your pension.  6 years will add £5.29 each taking you to £184.84, the 7th will only add 31p so is not cost effective to buy.

Nanucleo

Thanks but don’t understand why 7 years?

Martyns website suggests a female born after 1954 needs 35 years to get a full pension.

I am obviously missing something 

molerat

Nanucleo said:

Thanks but don’t understand why 7 years?

Martyns website suggests a female born after 1954 needs 35 years to get a full pension.

I am obviously missing something 

Yes you are, 35 years is of no relevance to those with a pre 2016 history, it only applies to those starting out after 2016 so born 2000 onwards.

That comment by ML is open to be misinterpreted, I am sure it says something like 35ish, he has been pulled up several times here for that comment.

Nanucleo

Definately confusing as NI direct website states that I will need 35 full qualifying years to obtain the new full state pension.

sounds like not all years prior to 2016 are as valuable as those after 2016.

We will persevere with the HMRC tel number but perhaps not quite as enthusiastically 

p00hsticks

Nanucleo said:

Definately confusing as NI direct website states that I will need 35 full qualifying years to obtain the new full state pension.

Can you post a link to that ? If that statement isn't qualified in some way (e.g. by saying that it only applies to those born after 6th April 2000), then it needs correcting

molerat

p00hsticks said:

Nanucleo said:

Definately confusing as NI direct website states that I will need 35 full qualifying years to obtain the new full state pension.

Can you post a link to that ? If that statement isn't qualified in some way (e.g. by saying that it only applies to those born after 6th April 2000), then it needs correcting

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated

but ............

Under the sub heading

You did not make National Insurance contributions or get National Insurance credits before 6 April 2016

You’ll need 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension.

A lot easier a read than this bit

Valuing your National Insurance contributions and credits made before 6 April 2016

p00hsticks

molerat said:

p00hsticks said:

Nanucleo said:

Definately confusing as NI direct website states that I will need 35 full qualifying years to obtain the new full state pension.

Can you post a link to that ? If that statement isn't qualified in some way (e.g. by saying that it only applies to those born after 6th April 2000), then it needs correcting

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated

Yes, but Nanuclueo said that they'd seen it on the NIdirect.gov.uk site (for Northern Ireland). I'm not very familiar with that site, so wasn't sure if they were quoting something directly from there or if it simply has links to the main UK gov.uk info that you've quoted, which is why I asked them if they could show us what they were actually looking at.

molerat

p00hsticks said:

molerat said:

p00hsticks said:

Nanucleo said:

Definately confusing as NI direct website states that I will need 35 full qualifying years to obtain the new full state pension.

Can you post a link to that ? If that statement isn't qualified in some way (e.g. by saying that it only applies to those born after 6th April 2000), then it needs correcting

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated

Yes, but Nanuclueo said that they'd seen it on the NIdirect.gov.uk site (for Northern Ireland). I'm not very familiar with that site, so wasn't sure if they were quoting something directly from there or if it simply has links to the main UK gov.uk info that you've quoted, which is why I asked them if they could show us what they were actually looking at.

Which states the same but in a slightly different way

You’ll need 35 qualifying years to get the new full State Pension if you do not have a National Insurance record before 6 April 2016.

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/understanding-and-qualifying-new-state-pension

Nanucleo

Right, thanks for a lot of the advice posted so far.

It is now clear that for those who have no NI record before 2016, then you need 35 qualifying years to get a full pension.

As I have a record prior to that date, what is not clear is how many qualifying years I need. I have 31 full years prior to 2016 and nil after. 

What I cannot find and perhaps someone can post a link, is the number of qualifying years someone with a NI record before 2016 needs to get a full pension. Previous posts suggest it’s 38 but I can’t find an actual figure.

p00hsticks

Nanucleo said:

What I cannot find and perhaps someone can post a link, is the number of qualifying years someone with a NI record before 2016 needs to get a full pension. Previous posts suggest it’s 38 but I can’t find an actual figure.

There isn't a 'one size fits all' answer to that one, which is why you can't find a link. 
It varies from person to person depending on their particular circumstances (e.g whether they were contracted in or out etc, how much SERPS or S2P they'd earned) - we've had reports here of people needing as few as 29 and as many as 50 (I personally need 45). 

This post from xylophone shows the calculations done under both the old and new rules
Additional NI contributions if you have full history but were contracted out — MoneySavingExpert Forum