cat123

Hi Johnny King, I see. Many thanks for your thoughts -- very useful for us to know!

My wife has her NI number registered in 2011. Age-wise, she falls in the category of new state pension. She is under the state pension age. She has never worked and has no NI credits. Accordingly, her online "State Pension Forecast" shows no qualifying years at all. Her record/forecast shows gap years from 2006 to 2023 (17 years), and indicates that she could make voluntary contributions (e.g. paying GBP824.20 to cover 2006-07) to turn those years into 'Full Years'. She called Future Pensions Centre, who said that she should first pay for 10 gap years *only*, and that they did not know whether paying for more than 10 gap years would have any benefit. They didn't give any reasons. We are extremely puzzled by this. If she pays to cover all 17 gaps years (by making Class-3 contributions before Apr 2025), why wouldn't all 17 Full Years count towards the calculation of her pension when she reaches state pension age? What would prevent all of them counting? Thank you in advance for your advice.