National Insurance online Top-up Anomaly...if you topped up in 2024, check it achieved as expected!

butterflymum

Can any regular forumites recall if as well as the State Pension forecast site being a bit glitchy last year, there were any concerns about incorrect figures being shown?

Have just noticed that when I took screenshots last year (cJune 2024), details showing were:

Estimate based on your National Insurance record up

to 5 April 2023
£191.91

Forecast if you contribute another 5 years before

5 April 2032

£221.20 is the most you can get

then 7 options for top-up, with Option 7/7 stating:



whereas on looking now it says:

You need to continue to contribute National Insurance to reach your forecast

Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2024

£191.91 a week

Forecast if you contribute another 5 years before 5 April 2032

£221.20 a week

£221.20 is the most you can get

then 9 options for top up, with option 9/9 stating:



and option 7/9 now stating:

Total cost	£3,086.30

Option 7 increases your State Pension forecast to £215.73 a week.

THIS OPTION IS AVAILABLE UNTIL 5 APRIL 2025.

p00hsticks

Yes it looks to me that Option 7 in your previous forecast is incorrect in saying that it would take you to £221.20, as it is only buying 4 years when, as the headline correctly indicates, you need 5 more to reach the maximum.

I'm not sure if buying the pre-2016 years are adding as much to your forecast as buying post-2016 ones would....

butterflymum

I wonder, had I gone ahead and paid the lower amount last year, as showing in the original Option 7/7 of £3086.30, which it stated would increase State Pension forecast to £221.20 (and would be available until 5th April 2025), what would have happened come eventual retirement date. Presumably their system would have eventually picked up that there had been an error in it previously and that I was apparently still 1 yr short. 

If they made this mistake on my forecast last year, it would not surprise me if they also made a similar mistake on others. Hopefully this thread might alert other forum users to check if what they paid last year, expecting to then reach the then maximum forecast of £221.20, has indeed achieved this or if the forecast figure this year is still showing them short (albeit by perhaps only 1 yr).

molerat

In the early stages of the roll out were they not assuming the current year was going to be paid ?

butterflymum

They may well have done, but then they should have clearly stated this in Option 7/7, as otherwise it was misleading. Others may have similarly been misled, and if they paid at the time last year  might not have logged on again since (believing they didn't need to, as they had paid to reach maximum), and not be aware they haven't actually reached the maximum payable and possibly still have another year that could be filled to do so.

molerat

The problem was that it was very much a Beta testing rollout, there were quite a few glitches that I don't think were properly understood at the time.  I am sure that it was picked up on here pretty much immediately. The main thing it did though was to allow people to pay on line rather than go through all the call centres.