Depending on where you are in life, you may think retirement is something you do not need to think about just yet. However, ensuring your National Insurance (NI) record is up to date is very important. This is going to be particularly so over the next few months, as the window to top up missing NI contributions is set to end on 5 April 2025. Your NI contribution record will determine your state pension entitlement when you retire.
Based on current rules (which may well change before your retirement date) you will need 35 years of qualifying contributions to obtain a full state pension. You usually need at least 10 qualifying years to get any state pension.
Please note that if you have ever been part of a workplace or private pension which was ‘contracted out’ of the additional state pension, you would have paid lower NI contributions as a result. If this applies, you might not be entitled to the full State Pension of £221.20 per week even if you have paid NI for 35 years or more. How much lower your entitlement could be will depend on how long you were contracted out and your earnings at the time.
If you have gaps in your NI record, HMRC may allow voluntarily top up contributions back to 2006 to fill any gaps to enhance your state pension entitlement. However, the deadline is 5 April 2025.
Paying additional contributions does not necessarily give you a better entitlement. This is certainly so if you have 35 full years’ contributions already (but perhaps not if you were ever contracted out). The system is not always that easy to understand and navigate. Therefore, we would always recommend taking advice to make sure any additional contributions would enhance your state pension forecast.
If you have a personal tax account, checking your national insurance record can be done through there. Please log in at https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account . Alternatively you can obtain a state pension forecast from The Pension Service by completing form BR19 and posting it to them https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/application-for-a-state-pension-statement.
Logging into your personal tax account is the quickest way to check your record as completing form BR19 can take time to process. The requests received by the Future Pension Service are likely to increase significantly as the 5 April 2025 deadline approaches.
If you need any help with obtaining a state pension forecast, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Further reading: Voluntary National Insurance
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