In order to qualify for a full state pension, you need to have enough qualifying years in your national insurance history. Currently this is 35 years, with 10 years required to receive the basic state pension.
There may be gaps in your National Insurance history for various reasons, such as periods when you were not working or if your self employed profits were below the National Insurance limit and no voluntary contributions were made.
If you were not working but were claiming child benefit this could accrue national insurance credits. However, when the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) was introduced many taxpayers stopped claiming child benefit to avoid this charge being payable, which could result in gaps in the national insurance record.
National Insurance Credits for a child benefit claimant that was affected by the HICBC
From April 2026 it will be possible to claim national insurance credits for a child benefit claimant that was affected by the HICBC. Initially, claims can be backdated to 2013 when HICBC was introduced. These are transitional arrangements and eventually it will only be possible to go back 6 years.
In addition to this, there is currently an extension to the rules to voluntary National Insurance contributions where eligible, for men born after 5 April 1951 and women born after 5 April 1953. This allows voluntary contributions to be made back to April 2006. However, this extension will cease on 5 April 2025 and from then it will only be possible to backdate voluntary contributions for six years.
You usually pay the current rate when making a voluntary contribution. The Class 2 rate will apply if you were self employed and is currently £3.45 a week. Class 3 will apply in other circumstances and is £17.45 a week. If the gap in your National Insurance record is between 6 April 2016 and 5 April 2023 you will pay lower rates of £3.15 for Class 2 and £15.85 for Class 3. However, from 5 April 2025 these lower rates may not apply.
How do you find out if you have gaps in your contributions history?
HMRC has launched a digital service that allows taxpayers to identify gaps in their contributions history and make the necessary payments to have these missing years treated as qualifying. If you are under state pension age this will allow you to see the cost of the voluntary contributions as well as the improvement they would make to your state pension. We would always recommend checking what the level of additional pension would be before making a contribution. The service can be accessed at Check your National Insurance record - GOV.UK
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