If you’re missing any national insurance contributions between 2006 and 2016, you have until 5 April 2025 (originally 5 April 2023) to fill in the gaps. After this date, you will only be able to top up the previous six years.
This deadline is important because it can potentially boost your state pension by thousands of pounds.
Currently, 35 years of national insurance contributions are required to receive the full new state pension for those that retire after 5 April 2016, but this may vary depending on your record and age. If you’re not sure if it applies to you or whether you’ll see a gain, you should contact the government’s Future Pension Centre (FPC).
Your next steps
If you find that you need to top up your state pension for any missing years between 2006 and 2016, you should consider taking action before the 5 April 2025. Here are the steps you can take:
1. Review your national insurance record and identify any missing years. You can do this by clicking ‘view your national insurance record’ on your state pension forecast page.
2. If you have incomplete years between 2006 and 2016, you may want to consider purchasing the missing years to boost your state pension entitlement.
3. To get a personalised quote and find out if paying for extra national insurance years will increase your state pension entitlement, call the government’s Future Pension Centre (FPC).
4. Once you have made your decision and informed the FPC, they can arrange for your state pension to be topped up.
If you have already started receiving your state pension, or if it is in deferment, you will need to contact the Government’s Pension Service instead.
Phone lines are busy
Personal experience has shown that the phone lines for the government’s Future Pension Centre (FPC) can be very busy and news stories echo this. If you need to call, it’s advisable to do so as soon as lines are open at 8am (Monday to Friday) to reduce waiting times.
Let us know
If you do take steps to top up your national insurance contributions, let us know. If you would like to discuss this first with your financial planner, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Don’t miss out on the chance to boost your state pension entitlement – act now!
