National Insurance missing years

BeauJ38

Hi

I watched Martin's great video re making up short years of National Insurance. Martin specified 2006-2017 on his video (I'm 62). I discovered 2 years 2011-2012 and 2015-2016 where I'd need to pay a mere £237 to complete both years. When I contacted the Future Pensions people their email said 'If you have 35 or more qualifying years at 5 April 2016, making voluntary contributions for tax years prior to 6 April 2016 would not increase your State Pension amount'.

Is this true? Having retired early my current pension prediction is only £175 a week so well short of £203. I do have 35 years of full contributions prior to 2016.

Regards

MallyGirl

Its complicated.
I will ask for this to be moved to the sub board where there are people who have the detailed knowledge to help

BeauJ38

Many thanks.

molerat

Yes, if you have 35 or more full pre 2016 years then adding more will not add to your pension amount.  In fact if you have 35 or more pre 2016 years and not receiving the full pension means you were contracted out and would likely be limited to 30 years counting.  You are restricted to filling any gap years 2016-17 and later.

BeauJ38

Well that's saved me wasting money. Yes I was contracted out for many years. 

Many thanks for your help.

squirrelpie

But it's still a very good deal to buy years after 2016.

Mike564

Thanks for this post. It clarifies things a bit.
I recently checked my state pension. I retired in 2019 at 55. The uk.gov website stated I am due to £183 per week aged 67 and this amount “couldn’t be increased”. I contributed NI for 38 years without any breaks.
I contracted out of serps 2. I think this is the reason for the reduced amount.

Elsewhere it was pointed out that I had missing NI contributions (2020 onwards) that I could top up with £800 or so. This could be described as misleading. My thinking is that if I pay this it will be money down the drain.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Mike564 said:

Thanks for this post. It clarifies things a bit.
I recently checked my state pension. I retired in 2019 at 55. The uk.gov website stated I am due to £183 per week aged 67 and this amount “couldn’t be increased”. I contributed NI for 38 years without any breaks.
I contracted out of serps 2. I think this is the reason for the reduced amount.

Elsewhere it was pointed out that I had missing NI contributions (2020 onwards) that I could top up with £800 or so. This could be described as misleading. My thinking is that if I pay this it will be money down the drain.

I think you have misunderstood somewhere along the line.

If you are nearly 10 years shy of SPa then I cannot see why any available post 2016 years wouldn't increase your current entitlement, albeit in your case a cap of £203.85/week.

What exactly does your forecast say (in full, not the top line)?

Either of 3 or 4 extra years would seem a good investment.

QrizB

Mike564 said:

I recently checked my state pension. I retired in 2019 at 55. The uk.gov website stated I am due to £183 per week aged 67 and this amount “couldn’t be increased”.

When you say "recently", exactly when was it?

Before April 2023?