State pension: Time running out to top up National Insurance payments for previous years to boost your pension

The UK state pension is calculated by looking at the amount of National Insurance paid by each individual. You pay this tax as a portion of your income.

To get a state pension, you usually need at least 10 qualifying years, and to get the full amount you need at least 35 qualifying years. If you receive credits because you are unable to work, these count towards the total.

However, if you only worked for part of one year, you may not have paid enough National Insurance for that to be a qualifying year. And so people have the option to top up their contributions retrospectively so that year “counts” towards their total.

For the last year, while the new system has been introduced, National Insurance could be topped up for 17 tax years - but as of April this year that timeframe will be cut to six tax years. This has seen the Department for Work and Pensions send out a reminder for people to check and make sure they maximise their state pension. The change back to six tax years - the usual limit - happens on April 6 this year.

HMRC says since a digital service was launched last April, 37,000 people have topped up 68,673 years, worth £35m to their pensions collectively. At the moment the records can be topped up from 2006.

Angela MacDonald, HMRC’s Second Permanent Secretary and deputy chief executive, said: “There are [less than] two months left to check and fill any gaps in your National Insurance record from 2006 onwards to boost your state pension entitlement. Don’t delay - it is quick and easy to check your National Insurance record on Gov.uk and it could help your finances in retirement.

“Since the launch of the enhanced digital service in April last year, more than 4.3 million people have used it to check their state pension forecast. The end-to-end service means customers can also use it to check and view gaps in their National Insurance record, calculate the difference any payment will make to their State Pension and then make one payment for however many years they need to top up.”

HMRC also says that 65% of the years topped up by customers are from 2017 onwards, the average online top-up payment is £1,835, and that the largest weekly state pension increase is £113.76

To check your state pension forecast using the government’s calculator, click here.