State Pension top-up and forecast

How much State Pension will you get? Are you due to get the full amount?

Did you know you can top up your State Pension to the full amount by buying extra years? At the moment you can buy missing years dating back to 2006 – but you’ve only got until 5 April 2025 to do this.

If you’re aged between 45 and 70 and you qualify, it could be well worth doing. The full amount of State Pension is currently over £9,000 for a year. And once you start getting it, it increases each year – so it’s likely to keep its spending power in future.

How to check your State Pension

First of all, you need to check how much State Pension you’re currently on track for by getting a State Pension forecast.
You can only do this if you’re under State Pension age. If you’re over State Pension age you’ll need to go straight to your national insurance record – see Check your qualifying years below.
Go to the Check your State Pension forecast page and select Start now.

Your Government Gateway account

You’ll need to set up a Government Gateway account if you don’t already have one. Select Create a Government Gateway account and follow the instructions, which include putting in your email address and creating a password. You’ll get a Government Gateway ID (a very long number).

Every time you log into your Government Gateway account you’ll need to put in an access code. You can receive these by text message, voice call or by downloading an authentication app. You can select ‘Remember me for seven days,’ so you won’t need another access code for a week.

Prove your identity

After setting up, or signing into, your Government Gateway account you’ll be asked some security questions: name, date of birth, National Insurance number.
You’ll also need to prove your identity. There are three options: driving licence, UK passport and credit reference. You need to pass two of them. If your first check fails you get four more attempts.

The credit reference involves putting in your address and answering questions about when you started or renewed financial things like mobile phone contracts, credit cards and bank accounts.

Your State Pension forecast

You should now get your State Pension forecast. It will tell you:

• the date you can get your State Pension
• the potential weekly, monthly and yearly amounts, and
• whether it’s the most you can get, or whether you can improve it.

The closer you are to your State Pension age, the more accurate your forecast is likely to be. But your State Pension forecast isn’t guaranteed. It’s an estimate based on your National Insurance contributions record, the current amount of State Pension and current law.

Check your qualifying years

From here you can check your National Insurance contributions record. It’s particularly important to do this if you’re due to get less than the full amount.
This will show you:

• the number of qualifying years – when you paid full National Insurance contributions or received National Insurance credits – you have, and
• when you didn’t contribute enough to get a qualifying year.

How to top up your State Pension

Can you claim National Insurance credits?

Check if you qualify for National Insurance credits first. If you can fill your gaps with credits, you may not have to pay any extra.
You get some National Insurance credits automatically, but you have to claim others. Here are some of the ways you might qualify to claim National Insurance credits.

• Caring for a child under 12, other than your own child (‘grandparent credits’).
• Caring for a sick or disabled person for at least 20 hours a week.
• Being a foster carer (after 6 April 2010).
• Being on statutory sick pay or statutory maternity, paternity or adoption pay, and not earning enough for a full year.
• Being eligible for jobseeker’s allowance or employment and support allowance, but not claiming it.
• Being on jury service (unless you’re self-employed).
• Going on a government-approved training course (unless you were sent on it by Jobcentre Plus).
• Being wrongly imprisoned, and your conviction has since been quashed.

If any of these apply to you or have done in the past, check if you can claim National Insurance credits.

Is it worth topping up your qualifying years?

Once you’ve looked into National Insurance credits, it’s time to see if it’s worth paying voluntary National Insurance contributions to top up your qualifying years. Remember, you’ve got until 5 April 2023 to fill gaps going back to 2006. After this, you’ll only be able to fill gaps in the last six tax years.

It could be good value. The current cost of a qualifying year is £824, which can add up to £275 a year to your State Pension before tax. So you’re likely to break even as long as you claim your State Pension for at least three years. And the longer you live, the better value it becomes.

It’s complicated

Of course it is. It’s State Pension. Sadly, it’s not straightforward to find out whether topping up would be good for you or not.

If you’re further away from your State Pension age, you may have enough years you can work and pay National Insurance contributions, or earn National Insurance credits, to get the full amount.

If you’re closer to your State Pension age, there could still be complications. For example, if you claim pension credit, increasing your State Pension could reduce your pension credit – so you might not be any better off. And you could end up paying more income tax – depending on what other income you have.

It’s a really good idea to check with the Future Pension Centre or Pension Service whether it’s worth you paying extra to top up your qualifying years. They’ll be able to look at your situation and work it out.

If you’re under State Pension age contact the Future Pension Centre, phone 0800 731 0175
If you’re over State Pension age contact the Pension Service, phone 0800 731 0469

Is it top-up time?

So you’ve had your phone call with the Future Pension Centre or Pension Service, and you’ve decided you want to top up your qualifying years.

Contact HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to get the 18-digit number you’ll need to make sure the top-up goes against your National Insurance record. They can give it to you over the phone or post it to you (post takes about 15 working days).

Once you’ve got your number, you can pay your top-up directly to HMRC’s bank account. Be aware it may take a couple of months to show up in your National Insurance contributions record.

If you’re already getting your State Pension, it could take a while for your pension payments to go up. But the increase will be backdated to the date you paid your top-up.

Find out more

The Moneysavingexpert website has a detailed guide to topping up your State Pension, including a calculator you can use to work out how much your top-up could cost, and how much extra State Pension you could get.

The government’s MoneyHelper website has a guide to voluntary National Insurance contributions and the State Pension.

Can we help you?

Baffled about pensions? Not sure what the best thing is to do? Ask us for help. We love helping people get the best out of their money.

Here are a few of the reasons you might want to give us a go.

• The personal touch. We go out of our way to understand you, your life situation, and what you want.
• We really know our stuff. We’ve got over 50 years’ experience of helping people plan and achieve the retirement they want.
• We’re completely independent and unbiased. 
• Your first consultation is on us.

We can help you plan the retirement you want, so you can get on with enjoying life without having to worry about money – now or in the future.