Have you paid sufficient NIC contributions to qualify for state pension?

We recognise how important state pensions are for retired individuals.

If you have any gaps in your working career or unfortunately had profits below the NIC threshold you may wish to consider making voluntary contributions to make sure you qualify for maximum state pension in later life.

Making voluntary contributions won’t always increase your state pension entitlement, but for those who are eligible, a modest outlay to top up incomplete or full years missing from your record may mean a significant boost to your state pension.

As part of transitional arrangements to the new state pension, taxpayers have been able to make voluntary contributions to any incomplete years in their National Insurance record which fell between April 2006 and April 2016, to help increase the amount they receive when they retire.

If this is something you wish to consider please be aware the deadline is the 31 July 2023.

You can check your National Insurance record, via the HMRC app or your Personal Tax Account if you do not have one as yet, this is something you may wish to sign up for.

If not you can also find out how to check your National Insurance record, obtain a state pension forecast, decide if making a voluntary National Insurance contribution is worthwhile for you and your pension, and how to make a payment on Gov.uk.

We would advise all clients to obtain a state pension forecast to help with future retirement planning.