Gary

Thankyou both for the replies and apologies for the time I've taken to respond - I had login problems! Alan, I hadn't made it clear in my post but I had already checked my online account for NI and State Pension status - that's what prompted me to start the voluntary contributions. With hindsight I should have waited until the beginning of the following tax year (22/23) before I started payments, paid for a year, and then gone back and filled in the part year (21/22) with a lump sum payment. I did look at cancelling the Direct Debit now, and paying a lump sum to fill in that part year (21/22), but it's actually now cheaper to let the payments run until next April to complete the year 23/24. Whichever way I do it I'll have paid more than I needed to.

I am currently paying voluntary NI contributions by monthly direct debit following advice from the Future Pension Centre that I required 'two years' extra payments in order to ensure I receive the maximum State Pension possible at age 67. Question 1: I'm now not clear what they meant by 'two years'. Does that mean 24 months from the date I started paying (Sept 2021). Or does that mean two full tax years (2022/2023 and 2023/2024)? Should I stop the payments now, as 24 months have passed, or do I wait until next March? Question 2: I'm guessing that I will need to manually cancel the payments at the appropriate time as I don't remember there being an end date on the DD mandate I filled in. How do I do this? Do I just cancel the DD, or do I need to notify HMRC? I'd be very grateful for any advice.