Architecture Student Missing National Insurance Contributions

archialuminiyf

Hi all,

After 7 years of full-time study in London, I am a 33-year-old fully qualified architect. My summers between university years and my two years between my undergraduate degree and master's degree were spent working.

I have checked my National Insurance Contributions online and, as expected, I'm missing about 6 years of completed contributions.
From what I understand, you can apply for National Insurance credits that fill in those missing credits. Is this possible for university students? If not, what do you reccomend?

Thanks in advance!

p00hsticks

I'm not sure what NI credits you are referring to - you usually get a credit if you earn between the Lower Earnings Limit (£123) and the Primary Threshold (currently £242) a week, or if you are on certain benefits so you may find you have years partially filled when you were working in the summer. You're not entitled to credits for being in higher education. 

This might mean that those years will cost less to fill by making voluntary Class 3 contributions, which is the other way of making years up when not fully employed.

However before you do that you need to look at your State Pension forecast to see whether you need to fill in gaps - it's not usually necessary to have all years fill in order to get the full amount (those born since 2000 will need 35 years) so unless you have years that only require a small sum to top up to full it may not be worth worrying about them. 

Check your State Pension forecast - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Note: you may not see the full detail in your forecast if you currently have less than ten full years, which is now the minimum requirement for any state pension. 

archialuminiyf

That makes sense, thank you!