You may have gaps in your National Insurance (NI) record if you’ve ever:
- been self-employed;
- taken time out of work (but didn’t claim benefits); or
- lived outside the UK.
Having a full NI history is important to ensure you can receive the full new State Pension. It’s possible to top up missing NI contributions going back the past six tax years. But there’s currently a window of opportunity to fill gaps in your record dating as far back as the 2006/07 tax year.
This could add hundreds of pounds a year to your State Pension. You’ll need to act quickly - as the deadline for making an extended claim is 5 April 2025. After this date, you’ll only be able to top up the previous six years as normal.
How to qualify for the full new State Pension
Once you reach State Pension age (currently 66, rising to 67 by 2028) you can begin receiving an income from your State Pension. Your NI record determines how much of the full new State Pension you’ll receive. If you’re not sure when you’re due to receive the State Pension, try PensionBee’s helpful State Pension Age Calculator.
As a reminder, the full new State Pension currently stands at £11,502 a year (2024/25), rising to £11,970 this April (2025/26).
You need at least 10 years of National Insurance contributions (NICs) to gain any State Pension entitlement. But you’ll need at least 35 years worth of NICs to qualify for the full amount.
You can check your NI record at gov.uk to see whether or not you’re on track.
What if you’re missing NI years?
If you have gaps in your NI record, it’s possible to ‘backfill’ years to boost your record and your State Pension. Right now, you can top up years dating back to the 2006/07 tax year. But this opportunity will soon close.
From 6 April 2025, the start of the next tax year, you’ll only be able to make back payments for the previous six tax years - going as far back as the 2019/20 tax year.
The extra time was given when the new State Pension was brought in in April 2016. You can backdate NICs to 2006 as long as you retired, or are due to retire, after April 2016 (so are roughly under the age of 73).
How to backpay and boost your NI record
You can make payments online at gov.uk to top up previous years. If you don’t already have one, you’ll need to create a Government Gateway login to access your account. When logged into your government account, select ‘View your National Insurance record’ and then choose ‘View payable gaps’.
You can then see whether you’re able to top up gaps online.
You won’t be able to pay for gaps online if you were self-employed or if you’ve lived or worked abroad. You have to call the Pension Future Centre first on 0800 731 0175 or +44 (0)191 218 3600 if phoning from outside the UK.
If you’ve spoken to HMRC and double-checked whether it’s worth topping up past NI years, you can make a payment online directly from your bank account.
How much does it cost to buy back NI years?
If you make voluntary NICs for tax years between 2006 - 2023, you’ll pay £824.20 (£15.85 a week) to buy a full year’s worth of voluntary Class 3 contributions. It’ll cost you less than this if you’d paid some NI in that year, but not enough to qualify for a full year.
The cost drops to £3.15 a week or £163.80 if you’re self-employed - which entitles you to pay cheaper voluntary Class 2 contributions. You can also pay the Class 2 cheaper rate if you’ve lived or worked outside the UK.
Is it worth making voluntary NI payments?
Buying a full year usually boosts your State Pension by 1/35 of the annual rate. So if you spend £824.20 buying a full year, you’ll boost your pension by around £329 a year (1/35 of £11,502). It means you’ll break even on your ‘investment’ after less than three years of getting the State Pension.
If you live for a further 20 years, you’ll boost your total State Pension by around £6,000. That’s a great return on the initial £824 it cost you. Bear in mind it may’ve cost you less than this if you didn’t have to buy a full year because you’d already made partial NI payments.
If you decide to backfill 10 years of NICs, say between 2007 - 2017, you’ll spend £8,240 and you’d add £3,290 to your State Pension a year. This totals £65,800 after 20 years - enough to potentially make a difference to your retirement income.
Topping up previous NI years gets worth it the closer you get to retirement when you have more certainty over gaps in your NI record. It’s likely not worth it if you’re young and have many more working years ahead.
You can’t boost your State Pension beyond the maximum amount, unless you choose to delay receiving your State Pension. So it’s not worth buying extra NI years if you already have 35 qualifying years, or expect to achieve this before reaching the State Pension age.
Next steps
To ensure you’re on track to receive a full new State Pension, you can:
- check your NI record and your State Pension forecast;
- if you think your NI record is wrong, contact HMRC;
- if you’re behind on qualifying years, contact the Future Pension Centre to check if it’s worth filling gaps in your NI record; and
- if it’s worth filling those gaps, you can make a payment either online if you’re eligible for using this method, or on the phone if not.
What you should know before you take action
Here are some things to keep in mind.
- The deadline is fast approaching - call volumes and wait times are likely to increase, so a bit of patience might be needed.
- You don’t need to contact HMRC to confirm your payment - it’ll show on your NI record, but this can take up to eight weeks.
- The State Pension isn’t set in stone - the government can change the number of qualifying years, the age you can access it, and the amount you’ll receive.
- You don’t have to rely solely on the State Pension - you can set up a personal pension at any time and make regular contributions into an account you can access from age 55 (rising to 57 in 2028).
Elizabeth Anderson is a Personal Finance Journalist and Editor (Times Money, Metro and i paper).
Risk warning
As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice.
