A MARTIN Lewis fan has revealed how he turned £1,400 into £30,000 thanks to a tip from the money saving expert.
The new full state pension is worth over £200 a week, but you need 35 National Insurance qualifying years to get this amount.
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However, you can buy voluntary National Insurance contributions to plug any gaps, boosting what you receive later on down the line.
One 64-year-old Martin Lewis reader revealed in the website’s latest newsletter how topping up his missing years could see him get back £30,000 by the time he is 80.
He explained: “After watching Martin’s state pensions boosting ITV show, I called the helplines and was told that I could increase my pension by over £2,000/yr if I made a one-off payment of £1,400.
“If I live another 14yrs (to 80) I’ll get £30,000 back. I can’t thank you enough.”
How to boost your state pension
The state pension is a regular payment from the Government you can start claiming after reaching a certain age.
The current state pension age is 66, although this is set to increase to 68 by 2046.
The full new state pension is worth over £203.85 a week, but you need a minimum 35 years on your National Insurance record to get this amount.
Meanwhile, you need at least 10 qualifying years to get any state pension, although they don’t have to be 10 consecutive years.
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You can often lose NI years, for example if you were caring for your child and not working.
However, you can top up any missing years to ensure you get the full state pension later on in life.
It’s worth bearing in mind, you can only top up missing NI years if you have reached, or will reach state pension age after April 5, 2016.
How to buy missing NI years
You can check how many years of NI payments you’ve made and any missing ones on the Government’s website.
Currently you can back fill holes in your NI record from 2006 to 2016, although this scheme was due to end on July 31.
After this, Brits would have only been able to backdate them by up to six years.
However, the Government recently announced the deadline for people to do this has been extended until April 5, 2025.
You can buy voluntary NI contributions on the Government’s website, before state pension age and once you’ve reached it.
Most people do this by buying what’s known as class 3 national insurance credits to fill gaps in their record at a cost of £15.85 a week for the 2022/23 financial year.
So to get a whole year’s worth, you’d pay £824.20.
This may sound like a lot, but it could boost your state pension by over £200 each year.
This means it would take less than four years of getting more from the state pension to recoup the cash you’d have to shell out for contributions in the first place – and you would continue to get this boosted state pension for the rest of your life.
The rules on how much you pay are also slightly different if you’re self-employed and buying class 2 contributions.
Meanwhile, here are four of the best ways to boost your retirement pot and two to avoid.
Here’s the full list of reasons you might have gaps in your record and risk missing out on the full payment.
