Martin Lewis urges people to check state pension before Saturday | Personal Finance | Finance
Money expert Martin Lewis is urging people to boost their state pension by possibly tens of thousands of pounds before a final deadline in just a few days’ time.
The Money Saving Expert founder called it ‘the most lucrative thing’ many people will be able to do with their money, but time is rapidly running out to buy or secure up to 13 years of National Insurance records via gov.uk and maximise your state pension payouts in retirement. One Martin Lewis fan who followed his advice ended up boosting his pension pot by a staggering £34,070 just by following this tip – but the deadline passes this Saturday.
Currently, there are a total of 13 years of National Insurance records that you can ‘buy back’ if you’re missing a full record for that year. Usually, people earn NI years by earning enough money in any given financial year, but they can also be earned through claiming Child Benefit or looking after grandchildren.
A worker typically needs to have 35 years of full National Insurance records in order to qualify for a new, full state pension, which from April 2025 is paying out £230.25 per week to those with full records. If you only have a partial record with missing years, your weekly payout may be lower.
But from next week, 13 years you can currently pay to add to your records, ranging from 2006 to 2019, will no longer be available to buy back and if you miss them you can never get them again.
Martin Lewis is urging people to check and buy any missing years now, before the final deadline.
Each year costs up to £800 or so to buy but can add about £300 a year to your payouts. So if you lived for 20 more years, that could be £6,000 more in your pension per year bought.
He said via his MSE website today: “While ‘boosting your State Pension‘ doesn’t sound sexy, it’s the most lucrative thing many can do with their money. Yet for likely millions across the UK, the door closes this 5 April, and it’s not a quick process.
“To whet your appetite, here’s one of the huge numbers of successes I’ve had both via my TV show and our State Pension boosting guide.
“Neil emailed: ‘I’ve managed to buy an additional 5 NI years for a total £814 (turns out I’m eligible to pay class 2 NI contributions). This has increased my State Pension forecast from £192 to £221.20 a week, so £1,622 a year. If I live to my average life expectancy of 87, it’ll total out at £34,070. Cannot thank you enough for the tips’.”
Martin, via MSE, says that men born after April 5, 1951 and women born after April 5, 1953 are affected – if you’re older than that, you can’t boost your pension in this way because you’re on the old state pension anyway.
To check, go to gov.uk and check your past NI record before April 6, 2025, when the final deadline passes. Then check your pension forecast, see if you can get any years for free (e.g. for looking after children), and decide if it’s financially worthwhile for you to buy up any missing years, for example if you’re close to retirement age and you’ll need more years to qualify for a full state pension.
He added that for just one year of NI records being bought “a 66-year-old man living for the typical life expectancy would get a total £5,400 back, a 66-year-old woman £6,400 as life expectancy is longer”.
The only risks are that state pension rules could change in future, so the further you are from retirement, the higher the potential risk of a change could be.
But Martin adds: “If you’re likely to make a huge gain doing this on current calculations (which most will), the risk is small, while the potential rewards are large, so I’d go for it (especially if you find it easy to finance). If the gain’s marginal, and you’re many years from retirement, this may be more off-putting.”
A full guide to this scheme is available via Martin Lewis’ MSE website or you can watch the March 4 episode of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live via ITVX.
