Martin Lewis says state pensioners can get thousands from HMRC with one phone call. The ITV star reminded the country that people have until April 5 to buy back up to 13 missing National Insurance years.
This opportunity could add thousands to lifetime pension payouts. After this date, the option to pay for these additional years will be removed from the scheme. BBC star Martin said: “If you’ve gone through everything and buying National Insurance years looks right for you, you can do it on Gov.uk state pension forecast tool which shows you state pension forecast, National Insurance record, payable gaps and lets you pay.
“You can’t do it online though if you’re at state pension age or 4 months before it or you missed years from self-employment or you worked abroad, or if they tell you it’s too complex. In that case you need to do it on the phone. The same is true if you’re worried and you want one on one advice.”
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He said: “You can get one on one advice. Who to call depends on your age, if you’re getting state pension or four months from getting state pension it’s the pension service, before that anyone younger it’s the Future Pension Centre.
“Just remember you can’t buy back years from before 2006.” He said: “Now, if you’re doing it by the phone, to pay you’ll need to get an 18 digit HMRC reference number, best way to do that is go onto HMRC web chat, that is quicker than calling them up although you can call them up if you need to.”
The 52-year-old said: “What they won’t advise you on on this advice line: they won’t advise you on if you’re due any free years normally, they won’t advise you on the tax impact that we’ve already talked about, and they won’t advise you if it may reduce your pension credit entitlement.”
State pension payments are calculated based on your National Insurance record, with 35 years of contributions needed to qualify for the full amount. Currently, the full state pension stands at £221.20 per week.
Missing years in your National Insurance record could result in receiving less than the maximum weekly amount. The option to buy back these missing years provides an opportunity to significantly increase future pension payments.
The cost of buying back each missing National Insurance year is currently around £824.
