Voluntary National Insurance

When the new state pension was introduced, individuals were given until April 2023 to make voluntary National Insurance (NI) contributions to cover any gaps in their record for the period from 6 April 2006 to 5 April 2016. The usual time limit to make voluntary contributions is six years.

The deadline has now been extended to 5 April 2025 following reports that the Future Pension Centre has been unable to cope with the volume of calls it has received from people keen to take advantage of making additional payments.

You can check online to see if you have any gaps in your record here: Check Your NI Record

If you think you were paying NI during a year that is showing as a gap, it’s worth checking that a mistake hasn’t been made.

There are various circumstances when an NI credit is available when you weren’t making contributions, so it’s also a good idea to check if any of those are relevant & need to be claimed. Examples include a period when you were eligible for Employment & Support Allowance, on jury service (unless you were self employed at the time), caring for your child prior to their 12th birthday or if you accompanied your armed forces spouse on an overseas posting. More details can be found here: NI Credits

For detailed advice & to check if you can improve your state pension position, you would need to call the Future Pension Centre. Their number is 0800 731 0175. They can check to see if you can make additional contributions and make sure that this would be beneficial. They are still extremely busy, so be prepared to try more than once before you are able to speak to someone.