Paid enough National Insurance to get your State Pension?
27th February 2023
In order to qualify for a full State Pension at retirement age you need to have paid 35 years’ worth of National Insurance Contributions.
If you are Self Employed you usually achieve this by paying Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance when your profits are more than £11,908 a year. If your profits, however, are lower than this, you can make voluntary Class 2 contributions which for 2022/23 is £3.15 per week. This must be paid by 31st January 2024.
If you miss the payment deadline you may be eligible to top up your National Insurance record for the year, but you will have to pay Class 3 National Insurance at £15.85 per week instead. You can top up any non-qualifying years from the past 6 years.
By missing the 31st January deadline you will be paying £824.20 rather than £163.80, so it’s important to pay on time.
If you need to check how many qualifying years of national insurance you have then head over to https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record where you can check this through your personal tax account.
If you do not have a personal tax account you can request a printed National Insurance Statement by post using the same link.
If you need advice or guidance on the matter, please do contact the Whitings Team today.
Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.
