Amount of NI contributions required to receive the full state pension at retirement age

My records on the HMRC Government Gateway website are shown as having paid 43 years of full National Insurance contributions. I am advised I only need to make 35 years worth of full contributions to qualify for my full state pension at retirement age (67 years of age) However my NI records say I need to make 2 more years of contributions to get my full pension. I believe I have already paid 8 additional years (43 - 8 = 35) of contributions so why do I need to pay 2 more years of National insurance to qualify for my FULL state pension?

Hi Keith Davis,

The new State Pension was introduced on 6 April 2016 and the number of qualifying years rose from 30 to 35. The other main difference is that the contracted out D rate of National Insurance Contributions (NICs) was also abolished and were no longer treated as like for like as A rate deducted NICs.

This may be the reason to why more qualifying years are required. You may wish to contact the DWP for a pension forecast, you can do this here:

Check your State Pension forecast

Thank you.