Are you recently or soon-to-be retired, but not eligible for the basic State Pension due to just a few years of missed National Insurance contributions?
It is now possible to render yourself eligible again, by ’plugging the gaps’ in your National Insurance record.
Since April 2009, you can ‘buy back’ up to six years of additional National Insurance contributions for years you missed since 1975.
This applies to people who reach(ed) State Pension age between April 6th 2008 and April 5th 2015, and already have 20 years of qualifying NI contributions. These years can include Home Responsibilities Protection.
Interested parties wishing to check if they have any gaps in their NI contributions can do so by contacting the Pension Service. You have six years from the date you reach retirement age to pay, but there is no guarantee that any resulting entitlements will be backdated.
If you are considering ‘filling in the gaps’ in your National Insurance record by making some voluntary contributions, bear in mind that this could result in an overall reduction in your retirement income, if it reduces your entitlement to Pension Credit, which is a means-tested benefit.
