Everyone born between certain dates could be in line for a £5,400 handout from the government – but you don’t have long to claim.
The ‘clock is ticking’ on a deadline to get extra National Insurance years added to your record with the taxman that could land you a handy £5,400 boost.
Money saving expert Martin Lewis is urging people to check and make a claim as soon as possible.
The new state pension was introduced in 2016 and it applies to all men born after April 5, 1951 and women born after April 5, 1953.
So if you’re born after those dates, you may be eligible to claim extra National Insurance years.
You need to spend a little bit of money to ‘buy back’ any years missing from your record. They could be missing due to going abroad, not earning enough to qualify in a certain year (e.g losing your job or taking maternity leave) or various other reasons.
You can buy back missed years as far back as 2006, but this is due to end this year, before April 2025.
That sounds like a long time, 11 months, but the process isn’t quick and you may need to save up to buy the years back.
Each year costs £824 maximum to claim back. From 2006, it was £824.20 for a full year, then £795.60 from 2020/21 and £824.20 again in 2022/23.
But you will get about £329 back into your state pension per year. So you would be ‘in profit’ in less than three years.
And if you live an average life expectancy, you could gain about £5,400 if you’re a man and £6,100 if you’re a woman, Martin Lewis says (because women live longer).
Martin Lewis said via his MSE website: “While many have told me it can be a pain in the bum to get to speak to someone on these lines, once they do, most say it’s brilliantly helpful. Such as Tom: “A huge THANK YOU about the NI advice and phoning the pensions people. I was missing 9yrs.
“I phoned to be told all I needed to buy was 7yrs to qualify me for an extra £40/wk [so £2,000/yr]. If I hadn’t phoned, I’d probably have paid the full £7,500 and lost about £1,800. I’m now looking forward to receiving the full pension.”
