Alan Jones

Why do you think you would qualify for class 2 NI, this is for self employed people. If you want to voluntarily pay for missing years, then class 3 national insurance is the way to do this and the way everyone else, myself included has to do it.

I am in the same position, over 40 years of NI contributions, but I need 3 more years to qualify for a full state pension. This is because I have been contracted out for most of my working career and so not not paid full national insurance. The easiest way to achieve a full pension is to pay class 3 voluntary contributions for the extra 2 years. You can either pay a lump sum to complete missing years (you can go back up to six years) or you can pay monthly by direct debit for the current year and seeing as you have quite a few years to go to state pension age, this may be the better option.

I am currently filling gaps in my NI record because I was contracted out for most of my working life. I am 2 years away from state pension age (May 2026) and I will need another 3 years credits for a full pension. I can claim a full year for the year 2023/24 but not until November and there is currently around an 8 month processing window. This year will be added to my record before I reach state pension age, but the next 2 years credits will not be added to my record until after I start claiming my pension, 2024/25 around 3 months after and 2025/26 around 15 months after. Once these additional credits are added, will the additional pension be backdated?

You should check your National Insurance record online. If you started paying in September then you will have paid 7 or 8 months contributions for the year you started paying in, in which case you will not have a full year. Your record for 2022/2023 should now be available online so you should see a full year for that. If you are still paying contributions for this year (2023/2024) then you will not have a full year until the final payment in March or April (I think they are paid in arears so April). This means you will get 2 full years contributions added to your record (22/23 and 23/24). You will also have a partially complete year (21/22) which you can top up if needed, but if not, then due to the poor advice you received you will have wasted the payments towards 21/22. The best thing to do is look at your NI record online and see what gaps there are and also at your pension forecast as that will tell you how many years you are short for the full pension