Check your National Insurance record
Paying National Insurance contributions (NICs) helps you rack up qualifying years, which are crucial for getting the state pension and certain benefits. You can also get entitlement through National Insurance credits.
State Pension Entitlement
If you hit state pension age on or after April 6, 2016, you'll need 35 qualifying years to get the full state pension. If you have less than 35 but at least 10 qualifying years by the time you reach state pension age, you'll get a reduced state pension.
It's important to check your National Insurance record to see if you're on track for the full state pension. You can do this online at www.gov.uk/check-state-pension. If you find any gaps, you can fill them in by paying voluntary contributions.
Class 3 Voluntary Contributions
Class 3 NICs are voluntary payments you can make to buy extra qualifying years to boost your state pension. Each additional year bumps up your state pension by 1/35th. For 2023/24, each extra qualifying year adds £5.82 a week (£302.86 a year) to your state pension.
For 2023/24, the rate for Class 3 contributions is £17.45 a week and will stay the same for 2024/25.
You need to pay these contributions within six years from the end of the tax year they relate to, so by April 5, 2030, for the 2023/24 contributions. However, unless it’s for the last two tax years, you pay at the current rate when you make the contribution, not the rate for the missing year.
People reaching state pension age on or after April 6, 2016, with missing years between April 6, 2006, and April 5, 2016, have an extended window until April 5, 2025, to pay for those years at the 2022/23 rate of £15.85 a week.
Paying voluntary contributions only makes sense if, after paying, you'll have at least 10 qualifying years. If you already have enough years to reach 35 by the time you retire, there's no need to pay extra.
Paying Class 2 Contributions Voluntarily
If you're self-employed and your earnings are below the small profits threshold, you won't get the NIC credit available to those with profits between the small profits threshold and the lower profits threshold. But you can opt to pay Class 2 contributions voluntarily. At £3.45 a week for 2023/24, this is much cheaper than Class 3 contributions.
Even after Class 2 contributions are abolished from April 6, 2024, self-employed people can still make voluntary contributions at the 2023/24 Class 2 rate of £3.45 a week.
Like Class 3, voluntary Class 2 contributions need to be paid within six years from the end of the tax year they relate to. The contribution is paid at the highest rate in force from the year it relates to up to the year it’s paid.
There's also an extended deadline of April 5, 2025, to make contributions for missing years between 2006/07 and 2015/16 at the 2022/23 rate of £3.15 a week.