The deadline of 5 April 2025 is fast approaching to pay voluntary national insurance (NI) contributions on gaps in your NI record between 2006 and 2018. Topping up can potentially make a huge difference to the amount you receive in state pension, and in some cases, partial years can be topped up to give a full extra year of state pension entitlement for less than £50.
The option only applies for men born after 5 April 1951 (currently aged 74 or younger) and women born after 5 April 1953 (currently aged 72 or younger). Anyone born before this is on the old state pension.
State pension entitlement
The full state pension entitlement for the current 2024/25 tax year is £221.20 per week (£11,541.90 per year).
To qualify for a full state pension, you will need a complete NI record of 35 years. Most people collect NI years through working and paying NI, but you can also get them if you’re claiming benefits or caring for others.
You can check your state pension forecast at https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension and your NI record at https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record.
Making voluntary contributions
If you do have a shortfall in your state pension entitlement, you may be able to pay voluntary contributions to fill any gaps in your NI record. Usually, it’s only possible to pay for gaps for the previous six years, but when the ‘new’ state pension was introduced in April 2016, transitional arrangements were put in place to allow gaps to be plugged all the way back to 2006. After 5 April 2025, this will revert to the usual six-year period.
The cost to fill in gaps in an NI record are up to £3.15 per week for class 2 contributions (£163.80 per year) or up to £15.85 per week for class 3 contributions (£824.20 per year). As each additional qualifying year equates to an extra £6.32 per week (roughly £330 per year) of state pension benefit, it’s easy to see the value of making these contributions. Voluntary payments can be made as a one-off payment or by quarterly or monthly instalments.
Only full years are counted towards your state pension entitlement, so you may find you have partial years on your NI record that can be topped up for very little cost.
Please note that state pension is paid gross but is taxable, so you do need to factor in your own tax position when looking at the figures.
This article is for information only and should not be construed as advice or a recommendation. You should always seek independent financial advice prior to taking any action.
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