OK. I just requested a call back. So when they call me back they’ll be able to tell me which years between 2006-2013 can be completed?
Let’s hope it works!! And I wonder what will happen if I don’t manage to answer the phone when they call.
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@Dave_Lawson Thanks for the reminder Dave, made it to 35y payments. Had gaps but last year of employment completed the necessary. Just so long as they dont up it to 40y.
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Looked up my record and there are three years where I’ve only been credited with 51 weeks of contributions even though I was working full time during those tax years. As they are not full years, they don’t count 
. Of course there is nothing I can do about this now but its is annoying. I’m on 33 years credited so only two to make up.
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The relevant bit is not how many years of NI contributions you have but your Pension Forecast, I’ve only got 33 years of contributions but my forecast is a full pension which I obviously can’t better even if I make more contributions to get to the “mythical” 35 years.
Mine does show a better state pension if I add the two years although it’s not much.
I contracted out of SERPS in the late 80’s as soon as it came into force and continued until it was abolished. Strangely, this doesn’t seem to have made a lot of difference to the state pension I can get and the contracted out pension, which I folded into a SIP with my company pension on retirement gives me quite a bit more.
I didn’t bother looking up any pension forecast. I left the uk when I was 45, and had been working full time for 24.5 years (from 21). I got 28/35 ths (80%) of the full pension so a lot of part time jobs/ maybe student time were taken into account
I think (don’t quote me) that the SERPS bit used to be an extra lump of contributions and therefore pension based on your earnings - if you opted out (as I did too) then that element of pension contribution had to be put into a private pension instead of staying in the Government’s pocket, the theory being that it would therefore grow at a better rate.
I think you would still have been paying basic NI towards the standard State Pension.
I have a separate private pension pot which is based on the SERPs opt-out money, for the period when I was Gainfully Employed rather than running my own business, but still notched up the 35 years to get the full State Pension now.
The only years I missed out on as qualifying years for the UK State Pension were the 7 years I spent in Turks & Caicos, but I still paid NI in the UK for 35 years even without those so didn’t need to do a top-up.
AFAIK its not mythical, certainly not how I was trained by the industry so I do find your case interesting?
It’s confusing because you need 35 qualifying years rather than simply making NI contributions for 35 years.
In my case I had (without realising it) made additional NI contributions many years ago which gave my two extra qualifying years. This only came to light in 2023 when I “topped up” what I thought was a shortfall of 6 years, having cashed my cheque I received a letter from HMRC to say I was due a refund for 2 years of additional contributions as I now had a full pension. When I rang them to query this I was told that the Pension Forecast is more relevant than anything else so despite only paying NI for 33 years in total (which ties up with my NI record) I need make no further payments.
Thats understandable from the perspective you mentioned, your additional contributions being treated slightly different phraseology from contributing years I suspect. Still all good in the end which is what counts 
Yes, that’s true. Part of the NI contributions went into the opted out pension.
Now, you have the ‘new state pension’ for those of us born after a certain time. The new state pension is adjusted if you had opted out of SERPS to make up for that. Just looked it up and even if you contracted out you can still get the full state pension but you need to add extra years to do so.
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I get the full (new) State pension but did not have to top up, even though I opted out of SERPS. I had 35 qualifying years - 1980 to 2015, minus 7 years 2003-2010, plus 2011-2023 or thereabouts.
But I was only an employee and SERPing from 1980 to 1991-ish - since then I have been self-employed and paying Class 2 and 4 NI, until I started taking my pension.
So you have about 40 years in total, if my maths is correct.
2015 was the year things changed and the norm became the £220/wk version. It caught some people out.
Something like that, although DWP still seemed to think I only had 35, at the point I started to draw my pension. Perhaps they stop counting after that. 
Hi all… few areas to be aware. You might have contributed but you need to ask the future pension centre how many QUALIFYING YEARS you have… it may show a full year of NI contributions but if you were contracted out of state pension this won’t be a qualifying year.
Also be careful as the forecast when you login will assume you are currently contributing and if there is enough years between now and retirement the forecast will show full. If the present pension is lower than forecast you need to top up.
It is financially beneficial to top up your pension if you think you will live 2 and a half years from retirement age, that’s the return of investment for class 3 (£800). Class 2 it’s less
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Dave, I printed out the statements last night for both qualifying (Full) years and the statement showing maxed payment from the state pension. Assuming they dont change anything that sounded like I am good to go. I might take another job towards the end of the year to build up savings pot so there maybe additional payments or years anyway. If I only do a 6 months temp position I can still make additional NI payments if they change things which I feel they might just as I get to retirement.