Blog: Your NI contributions and how to top up

In the news recently there has been a lot of talk about National Insurance (NI). This is because there is a “special offer” on at the moment by the Government to help people pay full NI and qualify for a full state pension. This means you will get the maximum amount of money in your pension when you get to retirement age!

For context, to get the full basic State Pension you need a total of at least 35 qualifying years of NI contributions or credits. However, some people might have some gaps in their NI record, maybe because there were times in the past when they weren’t working full-time or not on benefits (luckily when you’re on benefits, your NI is paid for you and if you work, it’s paid automatically through your tax, as long as your income is above a certain level, so you don’t even have to think about it).

The special offer available from the Government at the moment means that until April 2025, you can pay NI gaps going back to 2006 whereas normally you can only pay gaps going back six years! So it’s a great opportunity.

When I read about it, I thought this is definitely something that other Transform clients are bound to need more information on. So I did my research and I won’t lie… It’s actually a bit of a painful process but trust me, it will be worth it in the long run!

To find out what gaps you might have, and then fill them in if you need to, there are some steps you will need to follow:

Firstly you can look at the Gov.uk website to check your state pension if you want.
Your next port of call is the Future Pension Centre (FPC) helpline (0800 731 0175). They will be able to tell you if you have any NI gaps that need filling and which ones need to be filled, if any.
Assuming you don’t have a pot of money available to you, you will need to save up to pay the gaps – these are called top-up contributions. It might be just a very small amount that you need to pay, but the FPC will be able to advise you. And you don’t even have to pay it all at once, you can save up and pay each one in turn throughout the year.
Next you need to phone HMRC on 0300 200 3500 – make sure you have a pen and paper ready to make some notes – you will then need to select the option for ‘voluntary contributions’ (for information, HMRC stands for His Majesty's Revenue and Customs and it is responsible for collecting, paying, administering and enforcing taxes – you learn something new every day). You need to tell HMRC which years’ gaps the FPC have said they want you to fill in.
The person on the HMRC helpline will give you a reference number that you will need to give to your bank as it will be paid directly through your bank (I know what you’re thinking, but that’s what point 5 is for). There will be a different reference number for each payment and they will tell you which HMRC account number to send the payments to.You will then need to phone your bank and they will help you with sending the payment or payments to HMRC.
We’re nearly there I promise! You will need to phone the FPC again a couple of months later to check that your payment or payments have been received by them ok. You NI should now be complete!And finally, make yourself a warm cuppa and have a biscuit – you definitely deserve it!

Note

You can’t choose which gaps to fill yourself, the FPC will do that for you. Not all gaps necessarily need to be filled but the FPC will select the cheapest options for you to achieve the 35 years!

Transform staff are not legally allowed to give you any advice on what you should do with regards to your pension, but I’m sure if you feel like you needed some moral support, they would be more than happy to hold your hand while you make some of these phone calls.