Buying top up NI years

[SLacKer]

I might need to top up NI for a few years and was wondering how it is actually done to buy a previous year back. I have been through the government websites but can't seem to find the actual mechanism to do it. They even give their bank account details but how do tie the deposit up with my NI No.?

Anyone done this, is there a NI shopping cart somewhere?

[Kudos]

Part of DWP IIRC. I did look into it previously but found no need due to new legislation and cost/benefit.

How many yrs contributions will you have? Is it not something like £600/missed year?

[sumo69]

You pay Class 3 NIC to bring your record up to date - for 2013/14 this is £13.55 per week so £704.60 for each year you need to "catch-up".

You need to get a state pension forecast and compare this to the number of years remaining that you will contribute via your earnings - any shortfall can then be paid knowing you are not paying needless contributions that dont have any effect on your final state pension.

FYI you currently require 30 years contributions to have a "complete" record but this is increasing to 35 soon - I think April 2016.

Regarding searching for where to find out, try this:

https://secure.thepensionservice.gov.uk/statepensi...

David

[SLacKer]

Got the statement and need a few years top up but unable to figure out how to buy them and link them to the NI.