Your State Pension: forecast, gaps and buying back years

How much you're on track for, how to check, and when topping up National Insurance is worth it.

The State Pension is the foundation almost every retirement plan is built on, and it's the one most people know least about. It's also the only part of your retirement income where a few hundred pounds spent now can produce one of the best returns available anywhere in personal finance.

What it's actually worth

The full new State Pension is £12,547.60 a year in 2026/27, paid from State Pension age for the rest of your life, and increased each year under the triple lock.

Two things make that figure more valuable than it looks. It's guaranteed and inflation-protected, which no investment can promise. And to buy an equivalent income on the open market — index-linked, payable for life — you'd need a very large capital sum indeed.

It also consumes most of your Personal Allowance on its own, which has significant consequences for how you draw everything else. That's covered in Which pot do you spend first?.

How you qualify

Your State Pension is built from qualifying years of National Insurance. Broadly:

35 qualifying years gets you the full new State Pension

10 qualifying years is the minimum to get anything at all

Between 10 and 35, you get a proportion

You get a qualifying year from paying National Insurance as an employee or self-employed person, and also from National Insurance credits — which you may have received without realising while claiming Child Benefit, receiving certain benefits, or caring for someone.

That last point matters. A parent who stayed home with children and claimed Child Benefit will often have credits for those years. A parent who didn't claim it, because their partner earned too much for it to be worth receiving, may not — and that's one of the most common causes of unexpected gaps.

Check your forecast

Go to gov.uk and search for "check your State Pension forecast". You'll need a Government Gateway account, and it takes a few minutes to set up if you don't have one.

The forecast tells you three things:

What you'd get based on your record so far

What you could get if you keep contributing to State Pension age

Whether you have gaps, and which years they're in

Everyone should do this at least once, and there's an argument for doing it every few years. Errors do happen, and they're far easier to correct close to the time than decades later.

Filling gaps

If you have gaps, you can often pay voluntary National Insurance to fill them. Class 3 contributions cost roughly £900 for a full year, and each year bought typically adds around £330 a year to your State Pension for life.

Do the arithmetic on that. Roughly £900 spent, roughly £330 a year back, for life. You break even in under three years, and everything after that is profit — index-linked, guaranteed, for as long as you live. There are very few places you can get a return like that.

But check three things before you pay.

Will it actually increase your pension? This is the big one. If you're already on track for 35 qualifying years by the time you reach State Pension age, buying extra years adds nothing whatsoever. The money is simply gone. The forecast tells you this, and it's the single most common expensive mistake.

How far back can you go? Normally you can only fill gaps from the last six tax years. There was an extended window allowing gaps back to 2006 to be filled, which closed in April 2025. If your gaps are older than six years now, they may be beyond reach.

Are you eligible for credits instead? Free is better than paid. If a gap year was one where you were caring for a grandchild while their parents worked, Specified Adult Childcare Credits may cover it at no cost. Similar credits exist for various caring situations, and they're widely unclaimed.

Before paying anything, contact the Future Pension Centre. They'll confirm whether topping up would actually increase your pension. It's free, and it's the step that prevents the expensive mistake.

When you'll get it

State Pension age is currently 66, rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028, and to 68 thereafter. The gov.uk forecast tells you your own date.

Two things follow from that. The gap between finishing work and your State Pension starting is the most tax-efficient window in most retirements, and it's worth planning deliberately — again, Which pot do you spend first? covers it.

And you can defer taking it. Deferring increases the amount you eventually receive, which suits someone still working at State Pension age and paying higher-rate tax. Whether it's worth it depends largely on how long you live, so it's a judgement rather than a calculation.

What to do

Check your forecast. If there are gaps, find out whether filling them would actually increase what you get, and whether credits would cover them for free. If topping up is worthwhile, it's one of the best-value things you can do with a few hundred pounds.

Then factor the real figure into your planning rather than the assumed one — the Retirement Readiness Calculator uses it directly.

This article is for general education only and isn't personal advice. Whether voluntary contributions increase your State Pension depends on your specific record — check with the Future Pension Centre before paying anything.