Confused about forecast

mxh

I checked my pension forecast 18 months ago (on gov.co.uk) and it showed me my "Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2023" which was about £200 per week, and it then said "Forecast if you contribute another 4 years before 5 April 2033" which was the full pension amount,

As I am no longer working, I decided to pay for the 4 further years - these were paid for in Oct 2023 and soon after I could see in my NI record that those 4 extra had been allocated (to the years 2011, 12, 13 & 14). 

However the forecast still says the same as above - I waited until April 2024 in case it only updated yearly, but no, it still says "Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2023". Should I be expecting this to update at some point to show my new forecast? Anything I can do to get it to update? Is it stuck at this date for other people, or do others have a more recent estimate?

itsthelittlethings

When are you due to retire? Maybe keep the receipt for the extra years.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

mxh said:

I checked my pension forecast 18 months ago (on gov.co.uk) and it showed me my "Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2023" which was about £200 per week, and it then said "Forecast if you contribute another 4 years before 5 April 2033" which was the full pension amount,

As I am no longer working, I decided to pay for the 4 further years - these were paid for in Oct 2023 and soon after I could see in my NI record that those 4 extra had been allocated (to the years 2011, 12, 13 & 14). 

However the forecast still says the same as above - I waited until April 2024 in case it only updated yearly, but no, it still says "Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2023". Should I be expecting this to update at some point to show my new forecast? Anything I can do to get it to update? Is it stuck at this date for other people, or do others have a more recent estimate?

I suspect that that is your problem.

Did you check with Future Pension Centre that purchasing pre 2016 years would be of any benefit?  Just because a year is available to purchase doesn't mean it will always improve your forecast.

Post 2016 years should do but pre 2016 years can often be a waste of money.  

How many pre 2016 years did you have before buying those 4?

How many post 2016 years are available for you to purchase?

molerat

As above, filling post 2016 gaps will always add to the pension amount, pre 2016 gaps need to be treated with extreme caution.  How did you pay ?  Did you take advice from TPS (not HMRC as they know nothing of how paying years will affect your pension, they are merely tax collectors) ?  Did you specify those years to fill ?   If it was purely your choice you will need to grovel cap in hand to HMRC and ask them to re-allocate the payments to post 2016 gaps.