State pensioners, who have to be 66 or over to be of state pension age under current rules, are being given the chance to boost their pension pots
Ways to boost your state pension for free and save £824 ahead of an April deadline have been revealed. State pensioners, who have to be 66 or over to be of state pension age under current rules, are being given the chance to boost their pension pots with the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) by buying National Insurance contributions and filling gaps in their records.
Each year you buy costs around £824 and will boost your state pension by around £5.28 a week. But older people with an eye on retirement could be wasting their money by doing so as they may be able to boost their state pension for free.
This is because you may be able to fill in any gaps in your record by claiming missing National Insurance credits – or you could boost your payments by more than five per cent a year by deferring when you start to receive the state pension.
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Tom Selby, director of public policy at AJ Bell, said: “There has been a huge amount of publicity around the upcoming deadline to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions to fill gaps in your record going all the way back to 2006.
“However, before parting with your hard-earned cash, it is crucial to check you can’t boost your state pension entitlement for free by claiming NI credits.” Baroness Ros Altmann said as the awareness campaign continues: “You can claim past credits back to 2011 so make sure you check this out if you don’t have a full 35 year National Insurance record.”
Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “When you reach state pension age you need to claim it, you don’t get it automatically.”
Ms Morrissey went on, adding: “However, if you feel you don’t need to claim it at the moment then you can defer it.” And the personal finance expert continued, saying: “Before you do so it’s important to check whether claiming this extra amount potentially puts you at risk of paying a higher level of tax.
“It could also mean your eligibility for other benefits such as Pension Credit is affected.”
