Paying for gaps in state pension

thommo

Hi all, I'm checking my wife's pension for her and it's saying she is 2 years short. She has a part year where she is 2 weeks short which requires a payment of £31.70 but this is not an option when she goes to pay online. I've attached a couple of screenshots to make it clearer. Does anyone know if the option to pay that part year will be available if she phones or fills out some sort of online form if there's one available? Thanks in advance 👍

molerat

Years 2015-16 and earlier do not always add value to the pension, only post 2016 years are guaranteed viable. If you post up a few details someone will give the answer in a couple of minutes

Number of full NI years 15-16 and earlier
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

Buying one year at £795.60 will give £6.32 pw and pay back gross in 126 weeks

Buying 2 years at £1596.40 will give £7.96 pw and pay back gross in 201 weeks

You may not consider the additional £1.64 from the second year worth it.

thommo

molerat said:

Years 2015-16 and earlier do not always add value to the pension, only post 2016 years are guaranteed viable. If you post up a few details someone will give the answer in a couple of minutes

Number of full NI years 15-16 and earlier
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

Buying one year at £795.60 will give £6.32 pw and pay back gross in 126 weeks

Buying 2 years at £1596.40 will give £7.96 pw and pay back gross in 201 weeks

You may not consider the additional £1.64 from the second year worth it.

Hi thanks for replying.
My wife has 30 full years before 2015-2016 with 2015-2016 being a part year.
She also has 2 more part years but those 2 were before 2006.
She had no COPE and years 2002 -2016 were NI credit years looking after our 2 children,those credits ceased on 18th September 2016 on our eldest childs birthday.
My wife will be 58 in September.
Hopefully with this information someone can explain her position better.

molerat

Way too much information, everything is in the answer to those 2 questions (and info from the first post)

From that she would have a 2016 starting amount of £150.05 which is old rules, new rules would have been £133.41, so is limited to a maximum of 30 pre 2016 years, that single part paid year cannot add to her pension.

thommo

molerat said:

Way too much information, everything is in the answer to those 2 questions (and info from the first post)

From that she would have a 2016 starting amount of £150.05 which is old rules, new rules would have been £133.41, so is limited to a maximum of 30 pre 2016 years, that single part paid year cannot add to her pension.

Thank you for clearing this up for us 👍

T2JT

Hi all, i must be honest i didnt pay much attention to this pension change, i have been on the Gov.uk pensions and like the person above i see i have several gap years. I had full time work from Jan 2000 until Jul 2024, now i need t pay the difference in the gap years to date. Can someone explain if it will it make a big difference in my pension if i pay the missing years since 2014, would is see the return on the money invested ?

molerat

Without more information no one can say.  Post up some anonymous info from your forecast and someone will comment

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