Give your pension credit a boost before it’s too late | Tenant news

If you’re in the 45 to 70 age bracket, you have a chance to top up your pension credit - but you’ll have to do this by 31 July 2023.

Pension credit is a benefit for retired people on low incomes, which boosts their pension income.

What you need to do

1. Check your state pension forecast - this is will tell you how much state pension you’ll get. Note that you can only use this if you’re not already receiving a state pension. If you have gaps in your record, check if you can fill these with National Insurance credits for the times you were out of work, but never claimed for.
2. Work out if you have to pay to boost your state pension before 31 July 2023. You can buy National Insurance (NI) years to fill any missing gaps as far back as 2006.
3. Check any gaps in your NI contributions and how many NI years you can buy to help you decide whether to top up your state pension or not.  For example, if after checking your forecast, you find that your state pension pay will be less than £185.15 per week, and you can’t fill this with any NI credits, it might make sense to buy some NI years to top up your state pension for any gaps from only 2006- 2016.
    

The MoneySavingExpert’s team say, ‘buying a full NI year costs £824 (£15.85 per week) unless you’re self-employed or topping up a partial year or topping up the two most recent tax years, which could be £20 or £30 cheaper’.

Not a pensioner?

If you’re not yet at pension age, it’s advisable not to pay until you have spoken to the pension office to know exactly how much you’ll benefit form by topping up/ buying NI years. Call the Future Pension Centre on 0800 731 0175 to find our more.

Find out if you’re eligible for pension credit and how much you’ll get by using the government’s pension credit calculator, and call the Pension Service on 0800 731 0469 if you have any questions.