# Checking your National Insurance record and filling gaps for the State Pension

> Your new State Pension depends on the qualifying years on your National Insurance record. This guide explains how to check the record, what counts…

- URL: https://centiview.com/uk-money/national-insurance-record-gaps-state-pension
- Published: 2026-10-19T02:35:00.000Z
- Figures checked: 2026-10-19
- Edited by David A
- Topic: Pensions (UK)
- Publisher: Centiview (Persie Ltd, London)
- General information only, not financial advice

Your new State Pension depends on the qualifying years on your National Insurance record. This guide explains how to check the record, what counts, what voluntary contributions cost in 2026/27 and the deadlines, with a worked example.

## What a qualifying year is and why the record matters

The new State Pension is based on your National Insurance record, the running tally HMRC keeps of the years in which you paid National Insurance, were treated as having paid it through credits, or paid voluntary contributions. A year that counts is called a qualifying year. GOV.UK says you need 10 qualifying years to get any new State Pension, and the number of qualifying years affects how much you receive. For people whose National Insurance record started after April 2016, GOV.UK says 35 qualifying years are needed for the full rate. People who were contracted out of the Additional State Pension before 2016, a way some workplace pensions used to replace part of the state scheme, may need more than 35 for the full amount, because of how their starting amount is worked out.

> **Key numbers** Full new State Pension: £241.30 a week in 2026/27 (£230.25 in 2025/26). Years needed: 10 for any, 35 for the full rate. Voluntary Class 3: £18.40 a week; Class 2: £3.65 a week (2026/27). Gaps can usually be filled for the past six tax years. Checked 19 October 2026.

## How to check your record

GOV.UK explains that you can check your record online by signing in with your government account, and you may be asked to prove your identity, usually with photo ID. The online record shows contributions up to the start of the current tax year, which was 6 April 2026, along with any credits. It also shows gaps, meaning years that are not qualifying years, and whether paying voluntary contributions would help, how your forecast would change and what it would cost. If you prefer, you can ask for a printed statement online, by phone or by post, but you must say which years it should cover and you cannot ask for the current or previous tax year. A separate State Pension forecast service on GOV.UK shows what you might get at State Pension age. If you think the record is wrong, for example because an employer's payments are missing, HMRC is the body to contact.

## Credits: years that can count without paying

Not every qualifying year comes from a payslip. GOV.UK lists National Insurance credits, which are treated as if you had paid for the year. Some are automatic: for example, credits for Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Maternity Allowance, Carer's Allowance and Universal Credit, and Class 3 credits if you are registered for Child Benefit for a child under 12, even if you do not receive the payment. Others must be applied for, such as carer's credits if you care for a sick or disabled person for 20 hours a week or more and do not get Carer's Allowance, or credits transferred from a partner who receives Child Benefit. This matters because a gap may be a year in which credits were due but never recorded. GOV.UK says you cannot usually get credits if you are a married woman paying the reduced rate of National Insurance.

- Self-employed with profits below £7,105 in 2026/27: Class 2 is not treated as paid automatically, but you can choose to pay it.
- Living abroad: separate rules apply, and GOV.UK has its own guidance for people overseas.

## Voluntary contributions: rates and deadlines

If a gap is not covered by credits, you may be able to pay voluntary contributions. GOV.UK gives two kinds. Class 3 is open to many people and costs £18.40 a week in 2026/27. Class 2 costs £3.65 a week and is only for some self-employed people, including those with small profits, and a few other groups. GOV.UK says you usually pay the current rate when you make a voluntary payment, though earlier years may carry different rates, and the online service shows the exact cost. On deadlines, GOV.UK says you can usually pay for the past six tax years, with the deadline falling on 5 April. Its example is that you have until 5 April 2032 to make up gaps for 2025/26, which means 2020/21 can be paid until 5 April 2027. The special extended window that covered gaps from 2006 to 2016 closed on 5 April 2025, according to nidirect, so older gaps can no longer be filled that way.

## A worked example

These figures are illustrative only. For example, suppose someone has 34 qualifying years and a gap in 2020/21 that they could fill with Class 3. A full year costs 52 weeks x £18.40 = £956.80. Each of the 35 years is worth one 35th of the full rate, so £241.30 / 35 = about £6.89 a week, or about £358.50 over 52 weeks (£12,547.60 / 35). Dividing the cost by the yearly gain gives £956.80 / £358.50 = about 2.67 years of pension to recover the cost, before tax and before future increases. Class 2 for a year would be 52 x £3.65 = £189.80, which would take about 0.53 of a year to recover on the same basis. These sums only apply when the extra year actually raises the pension; if someone already has 35 qualifying years, an extra year adds nothing, and if the total is still below 10 years there is no pension at all until it passes that line.

## Who this applies to and common mistakes

This guide is general information for people in the UK who are below State Pension age or about to reach it, and who reach State Pension age under the new State Pension rules, which GOV.UK says covers men born on or after 6 April 1951 and women born on or after 6 April 1953. It does not cover the older basic State Pension rules, and it is not personal advice. The rules are the same in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, though in Northern Ireland your contact point depends on your age: the Future Pension Centre below State Pension age, or the Northern Ireland Pension Centre at or above it. Voluntary payments do not always increase your pension, so it can be worth checking the forecast first.

- Paying without checking: some gaps may already be covered by credits you have not claimed.
- Missing the six-year window: after 5 April of the sixth year, that year usually cannot be filled.
- Assuming more years always means more pension: it stops at 35 for most people.
- Forgetting the 10-year minimum: below 10 years, nothing is paid.

Free, impartial help is available from MoneyHelper and from the government's Pension Service, and a regulated financial adviser can give personal advice, which this guide does not.

## Check before you act

Rates, thresholds and deadlines change each April and the rules differ for different birth dates. Please confirm the current position on the official pages linked below, and use your own online record, before relying on anything here.

### Sources
- [Check your National Insurance record (GOV.UK)](https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record)
- [New State Pension: what you need to qualify (GOV.UK)](https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-you-need-to-qualify)
- [New State Pension: what you'll get (GOV.UK)](https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get)
- [Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027 (GOV.UK)](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-and-pension-rates-2026-to-2027/proposed-benefit-and-pension-rates-2026-to-2027)
- [Voluntary National Insurance contributions (GOV.UK)](https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions)
- [Voluntary National Insurance contributions: rates (GOV.UK)](https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/rates)
- [Voluntary National Insurance contributions: deadlines (GOV.UK)](https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/deadlines)
- [National Insurance credits: eligibility (GOV.UK)](https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility)
- [Rates and allowances: National Insurance contributions (GOV.UK)](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-national-insurance-contributions/rates-and-allowances-national-insurance-contributions)
- [Voluntary National Insurance contributions: gaps in your record (nidirect)](https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions-gaps-your-national-insurance-record)