You may have gaps in your National Insurance record for many reasons, including low earnings, unemployment, or working outside of the UK. Gaps in your record may mean you do not have enough contributions to get the full State Pension or to qualify for other benefits- such as jobseekers allowance, maternity allowance, or bereavement support allowance.
You can check your National Insurance record and identify any gaps by signing into your personal tax account on HMRC. Using this account will also clarify how much it will cost to fill in any gaps in your record. See the link below this article to log in or create an account.
You can usually pay voluntary contributions from the past 6 tax years, and the deadline for this is the 5th of April each year. This deadline has been extended for the 2016/17 and 2017/18 tax years, so you now have until 5th April 2025 to pay.
If you were born after 5th April 1951 (for men) or 5th April 1953 (for Women) you also have until 5th April 2025 to pay voluntary contributions to cover gaps between the 2006 - 2016 tax years.
After 5th April 2025, you will only be able to pay for voluntary contributions for the past 6 years. This may not be enough to qualify for the new State Pension if you have less than 4 qualifying years of contributions, as you usually need at least 10 to qualify. Additionally, to get a full State Pension (new) you need 35 years of contributions.
So, if you want to access the state pension (or any other benefits) and you are unsure if you have enough qualifying years of contributions, make sure to check your personal account, and get in touch to see if voluntary contributions would benefit you!
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