Martin Lewis urgent pension warning on National Insurance

On Good Morning Britain, the consumer champion urged viewers to check their status ahead of the deadline for boosting their state pension by tens of thousands of pounds.

“The new state pension started in 2016 – this applies to men born after the April 5 1951 so 73 years old and younger women after April 5 1953 so 71 and younger,” he said.

“Think of as for each National Insurance year you get a token. If you get the token, you get the token for a full year. It goes into the state pension piggy bank.

“If you’ve got at least 10 years, you’re going to get some state pension. To get the full state pension needs around 35 years, it can be more, that’s just the typical figure. So, if you get 35 years of National Insurance contributions, you get the full state pension currently, £221 a week, but from next week, £230, pounds.”

How do you get national insurance credits?

“You get these by working and currently earning over just over £6400 a year. Less than the threshold and you don’t get the year, but you can pay just a tiny bit to get the year.”

How does that work?

“One year usually adds £330 a year to your state pension, and it’s as a triple block means it’s inflation proof too. So you live typical life expectancy boosting one year is a £6000 gain. It’s 10 years, 60,000 pound gain.

What should you be checking and how?

Check your record via the UK Government website, and either check your credits there, or you can’t then request a form by the April 5 deadline, requesting a call back.

This is a strict deadline. From April 6, people will generally only be able to make voluntary NI contributions for the previous six tax years, in line with normal time limits.

The form has been placed on the gov.uk website, for those who are struggling to contact the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) by phone to pay voluntary NI contributions.

You can get NI credits by claiming certain benefits

“You can get it for childcare, when you’re looking at your own children on certain benefits, that give you National Insurance years, and if you’re a carer, you can get National Insurance credits as well.

“Some people may be missing years, typically, if you took time off work, if you had a low income, if you lived abroad, if you were a carer that didn’t claim or you didn’t claim the right child care credit.”

What does that mean?

“So when you when you claim Child Benefit, that triggers you getting National Insurance credits for childcare. But let’s say there’s two of you, one’s working, one’s not the working. Parent A claims the Child Benefit, they’re already getting National Insurance credits from work, so it needs to be the non working parent who claims Child Benefit, and they get the credits when they’re not working.

“If you did that wrong, you should check you can transfer those all credits for free, and it’s worth looking at now.”

Why is this so urgent?

“Transitional arrangements were put in place when the new state pension launched in 2016 they were meant to end a couple of years ago. Because I did lots of programs on this reverse the system, and they extended it, so until Saturday, you can buy back any missing years to 2006. Then from Sunday, you can only buy back to 2019.

“This is absolutely massive. If you’ve got missing years in that time it’s gone.

You can usually pay voluntary contributions for the past six years in order to get the full State Pension, but there’s currently a deadline extension of April 5 for you to check National Insurance (NI) records and fill in any gaps going back as far as April 2006. 

But many people do not realise they have gaps, and by the time they retire, it may be too late to buy those years back.

What if I can’t get through?

The Government has now said that those who cannot get through ahead of the deadline can use an online call back request form.

The DWP will then contact the person on the phone number given to discuss payment.

The gov.uk website says: “If you submit a request by the 5 April 2025 deadline, you will still be able to pay voluntary national insurance contributions after the deadline has passed.”

A Government spokesperson said: “Our new online tool will mean that savers will be able to make top-up payments after the April 5 deadline, provided they complete the call back request form ahead of that date.

“This will enable us to ensure no one misses out, and to suitably manage demand as the deadline approaches.

“We also encourage people under state pension age to check whether it is beneficial for them to pay voluntary national insurance contributions by using our online checker.”

The Government said it always prioritises resources to deal with foreseen busy periods and this will include reviewing its resources before the deadline.

Sir Steve Webb, a former Liberal Democrat pensions minister who is now a partner at pension consultants LCP (Lane Clark & Peacock) said: “After the chaos in the run-up to previous deadlines, it is good that the Government has planned ahead to make sure that people do not miss out simply because they cannot get through on official phonelines to discuss state pension top-ups.

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“For many people a state pension top-up will be excellent value.

“But it is useful to be able to discuss your options with someone who can see your NI record and in particular highlight if topping up some years would be of little or no value.

“Whilst it would be better if people could simply call ahead of the deadline and get through, at least there is now the reassurance that those who try to make contact before the deadline will still be able to make payments after the deadline has passed.”