Entitlement

Joons

My husband is from Spain, he came to the UK in 2000 and has worked ever since.  When he retires, he will have paid 33 years worth of national insurance contributions.  As you need 35 qualifying years for a full state pension, will he be able to buy back the missing two years?  

Brie

Does he have a state pension from Spain?  He might think about whether that will make up the difference or even if he can use the reciprocal agreement to use those credits to bolster his UK SP.   Have a look at the link and maybe get him to give them a call.

International Pension Centre - GOV.UK

p00hsticks

Joons said:

My husband is from Spain, he came to the UK in 2000 and has worked ever since.  When he retires, he will have paid 33 years worth of national insurance contributions.  As you need 35 qualifying years for a full state pension, will he be able to buy back the missing two years?  

The '35 years' only applies to those who started their working lives after the introduction of the new State Pension in 2016. Your husband may need more or less. As he has a number of pre-2016 years then if he was 'contracted in' he may need less, if 'contracted out' he may need more. .  His first step should be to check his state pension forecast.
Check your State Pension forecast - GOV.UK

If he ends up with any gaps in his record then he'll be able to make voluntary contributions to fill them (but only worth doing if they'll boost his pension). He won't be able to go further back than when he arrived in the UK and obtained an NI number or further forward than the tax year before the one in which he reaches State Pension Age. 

molerat

Joons said:

My husband is from Spain, he came to the UK in 2000 and has worked ever since.  When he retires, he will have paid 33 years worth of national insurance contributions.  As you need 35 qualifying years for a full state pension, will he be able to buy back the missing two years?  

35 years is of no real relevance to anyone with a pre 2016 history.  You need to get a proper forecast and that will show exactly where he sits, you may be surprised.  If he is still short with a full record between arriving and state pension age he would not be able to top up.

Sam_666

He has until 6 April this year to buy back ANY missing year since 2006.
Use link in above post to find any gap years. Same years might be cheaper then others to buy.

german_keeper

Joons said:

My husband is from Spain, he came to the UK in 2000 and has worked ever since.  When he retires, he will have paid 33 years worth of national insurance contributions.  As you need 35 qualifying years for a full state pension, will he be able to buy back the missing two years?  

Just out of idle curiosity Joons, do you mind explaining why you thought you need 35 qualifying years? It's way off the mark as explained above but so many people think it is the case. 

jem16

Brie said:

Does he have a state pension from Spain?  He might think about whether that will make up the difference or even if he can use the reciprocal agreement to use those credits to bolster his UK SP.   Have a look at the link and maybe get him to give them a call.

International Pension Centre - GOV.UK

You cannot use years from another country to bolster your UK pension. All you can do is aggregate the years to meet the minimum requirement which he seems to do anyway.

Suhusa

Depending on the Spanish pension's requirements, he may have to use his UK years to get over the minimum requirements of his Spanish pension though.