jimR wrote:mc2fool wrote:Not sure where you're seeing that but removedurl makes no distinction between the two for that purpose.
In the place where you can check your contributions, if I click on a recent year, that is "not full" I see this:
You did not make any contributions this year
Find out more about gaps in your record and how to check them.
You can make up the shortfall
Pay a voluntary contribution of £824.20 by 5 April 2023. This shortfall may increase after 15 May 2023.
Find out more about voluntary contributions.
Hmmm...does that ever offer voluntary class 2 NICs? I don't know, maybe someone who does can comment. BTW, the deadline for any voluntary NICs that was due to expire this 5 April has been extended to 31 July.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=38273mc2fool wrote:Thanks very much mc2fool, I'd be very grateful if you could give me your calculation from the figures below!
a) The £ amount of the "Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2022"? : £116.38 a week
b) The tax year you will reach state pension age. 2032/2033
c) The number of non-qualifying years (i.e. not filled) between 2006/7 and 2015/16, inclusive. 3
and if the answer to (c) isn't zero
d) Your COPE -- Contracted Out Pension Equivalent -- if you have one (it's lower down the main page) : Don't have one
Note : I have a small pension that is frozen or whatever the term used was from contributions in the 80s and 90s, not heard a peep about since then
e) The number of qualifying years you have up to and including 2015/16. 22
f) The number of qualifying years you have from 2016/17 onwards, inclusive. 0
Ok, yours is actually a simple case (a) 'cos you have no COPE and (b) 'cos you don't have any 2016/17 onwards years. The "starting amount" that goes into the new state pension as of 6-Apr-2016 for you is the higher of what you'd have got under the old scheme and what you'd have got under the new one if it had always been in existence at that date, less and adjustment for being contracted out (the COPE). This calculation is done in 2016 figures, which is what HMRC & DWP will talk in if you ever have to contact them about it, so that's the way we'll do it. So...
2016 Old State Pension (30 years): £119.30 per week.
2016 New State Pension (35 years): £155.65 per week. For 2022/3 it's £185.15pw.
We'll start by back calculating your starting amount at 6-Apr-2016 in 2016 figures from your current amount, of £116.38 (you'll see why in a minute) which, as you've had no additional years since, we do simply by reducing it by the increases since. So, that's £116.38 * (£155.65/£185.15) = £97.84.
Now, up to 5-Apr-2016 you have 22 qualifying years. Your entitlement under the new system (had it always been in existence) at that date would be (22 / 35) * £155.65 = £97.84 minus your COPE, which is zero, so £97.84 would be the (2016) figure under the new system, and as that matches the back calculated figure your "starting amount" must have come from the new system figure, being higher.
Knowing that, we don't need to calculate what it was under the old system but we'll do it anyway, just for the heck of it! Under the old system at 5-Apr-2016 you'd have had (22 / 30) * £119.30 = £87.49 plus any Additional State Pension you'd earned. So, we can conclude that any ASP you had would have been no more than £10.35 (£97.84-£87.49) or you'd have had a bigger starting amount than the £97.84.
Now, the practical upshot of this is that as (a) your starting amount is from the new system calculation
and (b) you have no COPE, then 35 years
is what you need for the full state pension! (We actually could have derived that simply from (a) and (e)+(f) but the above is the fuller calculation.
)
Further, it (almost) doesn't matter which years you fill to get there; you have 13 years to add and the 3 pre-2016 years, the 6 years 2016/17 to 2021/22, the current year, and the 9 years from 2023/24 to 2031/32 will each add the same amount to your pension (currently £5.29pw), so from that point of view it doesn't matter which 13 of those 19 years you fill.
The "almost" is 'cos class 2 NICs are frozen in price for 1 year and class 3 for 2, so it's a little cheaper to fill those than other years (and that's an ongoing consideration), and there is the logistical matter of your 4 years up to and including 2016/17 must be filled before the extended deadline of 31 July. So, there's your choices....
