Check your State Pension forecast service not working

Not sure if this is the right place to raise this but I have been trying for days to access the service for checking one's pension forecast so I can see if I need to make any NI contributions, and it persistently tells me this: "Sorry, there is a problem with the service This might be caused by a high number of people trying to use this service at the moment. Try again later." Can anyone help?

I have had the same message for several years. I believe it was last working for me in around 2018 before i paid some backdated class 2 overseas contributions.

Hi,

If you are having trouble viewing your online forecast Check your State Pension forecast below, you may wish to either telephone the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) and they can send one out via post.

Check your State Pension forecast

The telephone number is 0800 731 0175.  They are open Monday to Friday 8:30am to 3:30pm

The address to write to is 

The Pension Service 9
Mail Handling Site A
Wolverhampton
WV98 1LU

Thank you.

I paid national insurance contributions and since then I cannot access my state pension forecast . I keep getting a message saying “ sorry there is a problem with this service . No matter how many times I e mail them nothing is being done .

I am still having this problem but the DWP Future Pension Centre say there is a problem with m y account or NI no (not sure which) and so far this seems the only explanation for why I cannot access my State Pension Forecast (and until it is fixed they will not send me a forecast either!); it is not a problem with my Government Gateway ID which is fine and allowed me into my Personal Tax Account without any problem. HMRC (once I could get through to them) confirmed that my details were all correct and gave me a precise figure for what the shortfall in my NI contributions was. It is however nigh on impossible to get through the HMRC voice menu to speak to an actual person but the DWP phone does get answered pretty promptly and they are as helpful (I think) as they can be and they may be able to say if they think there is a problem with your account.

Since paying volunteer contributions about six weeks ago I now cannot access my pension forecast online . I am also getting the message “ sorry there is a problem with this service “ . I rang HMRC as I hoped they could send me a statement but they also said they get the same message and can’t access my information. Very frustrating .

My wife is having exactly the same problem. The service was working fine until she paid nearly £10,000 in voluntary NI contributions. Now she is getting the 'sorry there is a problem with this service message'. HMRC: you need to sort this out, it's a disgrace.

Gateway Pensions Forecast site was working fine until I paid latest voluntary NI conts. in April. Since then, been getting the same “Sorry there’s a problem with this service” message as other contributors. Seems strange it’s affecting the site after a contribution has been paid, especially since there was a deadline for payment at end July for certain years so no doubt DWP has been inundated. Phones not being answered and no response to technical online fault form either. Is this actually a problem with the Gateway Pensions site or is DWP so far behind updating people’s pensions records that they’ve put this message up? If the latter, would it not be better to be honest and give a general idea of timescale?

I'm also getting the repeated message saying there's a problem with the service. So I called the number provided and got through to someone who offered to send me the state pension forecast by post. When I mentioned the non-functioning on-line service and the litany of people who are experiencing the same problem, I was told it was a different department and they had no idea what it was about. I said it would be a good idea for one government dept to talk to another in the interests of the public and this suggestion didn't seem to stir much interest. Let's see if anyone from a gov dept reads this thread and decides to do something helpful.