BobbyD wrote:It doesn't, that line doesn't exist.
If I click on 'see your pension forecast' from the government gateway page I see something more like this:
:
- and I don't have the line about the most I can get, presumably because unlike this page from mse I am not on schedule to get the most I can get.
Well how strange! I've been doing these calculations for Lemons for many years and right up to a couple of weeks ago and that info is an absolutely standard one I've always asked for from their pension forecasts, and yours is the first one that doesn't show it -- and it's not like it's a new format as my example is from last year while the MSE one is from 2019. So, I don't know why it shows one format for some and another for others.
In any case, or rather, your case, so you've spent all your time in the UK, are in your late 40s and yet have only ever worked for four years?!? (The other 3 being your "starting credits" just for being 16, 17 & 18.) A member of the idle rich, I take it?
Or maybe a kept man/woman?
So, the £37.03 was just a cross check and going from the figures you have it is clear that your starting amount was under the new state pension calculation and that adding pre- or post-2016 years is worth the same to you (£5.29pw). In that respect it doesn't matter which 28 of your 16 fillable past years and 19 present and future years you fill, any 28 will do.
However, there are deadlines and costs to consider. Firstly, you only have (by extension) until 31 July to fill any years from 2006/7 to 2016/17 inclusive. Further, the cost for the other past years, except 2020/21 & 21/22, goes up after then to next year's price. Prices always stay at the original price for two years, and then rise to the current year's price . See
this HMRC forum post for details (scroll down to the table).
However, going forward the optimal thing to do is to declare yourself self-employed at some "toy" job, which makes you eligible to pay voluntary class 2 NICs, which cost a mere £163.80 p.a. See
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tax-free-allowances-on-property-and-trading-income.