Which NI years to top up?

donnawilson99

Hi, new here so apologies if this has been answered already. I’ve checked my missing NI gaps and have 9 years missing in total. However only 3 of these are full years i.e. £824.20. Some years are only weeks ranging from 7weeks to 24weeks. My pension projection is £158 per week based on these missing years. I am 54 and stopped work last year. My question is would it make more sense financially to top up those years with only weeks missing - I can’t afford to top up all 9 years. Thanks ☺️ 

molerat

Buying a year for £10 will in most cases give exactly the same pension as one for £824 so it generally makes sense to buy those in preference to the more expensive ones.  If you post up the usually asked anonymous details from your forecast someone will talk you through / sense check the options.

Current weekly £££.pp amount up to April 2024.
Number of full NI years 15-16 and earlier
Number of full NI years 16-17 and later
Tax year you reach state retirement
Any COPE amount.  If you have "You've been in a contracted-out pension scheme" on your forecast then click
here https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-your-state-pension/account/cope whilst logged into your tax account
Years which show not full and prices

donnawilson99

Thank you so much 😊 

donnawilson99

Thank you Molerat. So £158.25 per week projected pension. Number of full years 15/16 and earlier = 20 years. Full years 16/17 and later = 6 years. Tax year of retirement is 2038/2039. COPE amount £19.65 per week which doesn’t affect state pension is what HMRC link says. So 9 year short but 6 of which are weeks rather than whole years. 

molerat

So 9 year short

I make it 10, £221.20 - £158.25 = £62.95 / £6.32 = 10.  The forecast will state how many.

Anyway, from that any year will add to the pension subject to adding no more than 10 pre 2016 years.  Any pre 2016 years will only add £5.65 against  £6.32 for a post 2016 year only reducing the required number of years by .9 each so buying 2 will leave you needing 8.2, so 9 more full years to reach £221.20. But if they are really cheap it would still be worth it.

donnawilson99

thank you molerat. I think I’ve got the rough idea now. I think the only thing I don’t quite understand is how I can see the difference to the weekly pension amount depending if, and how much, I top up. So for example, if I was to top up by say £332.85 in total from pre 2016 (covering 3 tax years) how do I know then what my projected weekly pension is? Appreciate your help with this, really 😁

QrizB

donnawilson99 said:

thank you molerat. I think I’ve got the rough idea now. I think the only thing I don’t quite understand is how I can see the difference to the weekly pension amount depending if, and how much, I top up. So for example, if I was to top up by say £332.85 in total from pre 2016 (covering 3 tax years) how do I know then what my projected weekly pension is? Appreciate your help with this, really 😁

Per molerat's figures, each pre-2016 year will add £5.65 a week to your pension.

If your current projection is £158.25, adding those three years will increase it to 158.25 + 5.65 + 5.65 + 5.65 = £175.20.

If you're now 54 you'll have time to buy another 7 or 8 years post-2016 before you reach SPA, to get you to £219.44 or £221.20 respectively.

donnawilson99

i see! That all makes sense now. Thanks to you both, such a great help! Brilliant 🤩