Guide discussion: Voluntary national insurance contributions 23 February at 4:48PM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 1 reply 69 views

laser01

Many thanks for all the very helpful information on this thread, absolutely fantastic. I  telephoned the Future Pensions Service (on Friday 17/2/23) and like nickutd  couldn't  get further than being told by answering machine to call back after April as they are only dealing with pre 2016 years.

I am not sure whether paying additional years will improve my pension and if so how many do I need to pay. 

Key notes from my online forecast and NI records:

You can get your State Pension on xx xx 2024

• Your forecast is £169.85 a week, £738.54 a month, £8862.53 a year.
• Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2022: £159.27 a week
• Forecast if you contribute until April 2024: £169.85 a week

You have:

41 years of full contributions
2 years to contribute before 5 April 2024
7 years when you did not contribute enough

until 2015- 2016 I had 39 years and from 2016-17, 2017-18 I have 2 full years then I retired from my job in the NHS  so

2018-19, 19-20, 20-21, 21-22, 22-23 missing as well as (1977-78, 78-79, 79-80) when I was at university.

Since I worked in NHS I was contracted out, my COPE is £80.44 per week

molerat

You need 5 more years to reach the full £185.15.  You have 2 years going forward, 2022-23 and 2023-24 and 4 empty looking back so need all but one to fill up.

2021-22 and 2022-23 will be staying at £800.80 and £824.20 after April, anything earlier will be increasing to £907.40.

The problem you have now is the scrabble to buy years and getting in touch with DWP / HMRC.  If you are confident you could just phone up HMRC and pay for 3 or 4 of the available years, 18-19, 19-20 and 20-21 as the cheapest (£824.20, £824.20 & £795.60) and pay 21-22 and 22-23 after April.