Less than 6 weeks left to boost your state pension
Posted 03/03/2023
As covered in the pension special programme by Martin Lewis, if you are aged under 70 you have just weeks left to potentially boost your state pension.
The basics are as follows:
- For anyone aged around 45 to 70, to get your full state pension you will need around 35 qualifying national insurance years.
- Until 05/04/2023, you can plug any gaps going back to 2006, but after this date you can only go back to 2017.
How to check if you are missing national insurance years:
- Firstly, if you are under state pension age, check your state pension forecast at https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension . This will tell you if your pension is forecast to be at the full state pension level.
- Everybody, even if you are already state pension age, should check your national insurance record at https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record . This will tell you if you have any years that are not full or have not been contributed into since 2006.
- Check if you are due free national insurance credits because, for example, you were a carer or you had childcare responsibilities or an illness. All examples are at https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility
If you have a shortfall, you can buy more years, but if the gaps are between 2006 – 2017 you will need to do this by 05/04/2023.
But before doing this, it is advisable to contact the Governments Future Pension Centre for bespoke calculations to ensure that it is worth you making the additional contributions https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre
For further updates, please follow us at:
Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/company/accountants-congleton-cheshire