Information & advice

The Pensions Act 2008 includes a provision for you to make additional voluntary National Insurance (NI) contributions to make up for gaps in your contribution record. These additional contributions could help you get a basic State Pension.

Following an amendment to the Pensions Bill‚ there will be a new provision from April 2009 that will allow you to buy back an additional six years of NI contributions in certain situations. This change will affect men and women who reach state pension age between 6 April 2008 and 5 April 2015‚ and already have 20 qualifying years on their NI record‚ including any Home Responsibilities Protection. The missing years you wish to make up can be from as far back as 1975-76.

What to do

If you think making additional voluntary NI contributions could help your pension situation‚ you should start by getting a pension forecast from the Pension Service to check whether you have any missing gaps in your contributions record. If you do‚ you should then seek advice from your local Citizens Advice Bureau or Age Concern before April to decide whether making additional voluntary NI contributions is appropriate for your circumstances.

N.B. Please remember that making additional voluntary NI contributions might not be in your best interest‚ as this could reduce your overall retirement income‚ by reducing your entitlement to means-tested benefits such as Pension Credit.

For more information‚ please visit the Pension Service website.