I have 40 years of contributions. Apparently swmbo has 6 or 7. Might be worth her while paying to bring herself up to 10 years worth ?
Or will they move the goalposts again in a few years and throw the whole thing into confusion again ?
Probably best answered in another thread - If admin want to split this stuff off then I've no objections. However, in the mean time....
You can each check your state pension entitlement here (though you have to register first) :
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pensionIt is important you do this to see where you are at. The answer to your question is, as always, it depends.
For you - with 40 years NI I'm assuming you're in your 60's? If you were never contracted out into a private pension scheme then its still entirely possible to get £250+ of state pension per week by the time SERPS/S2P is taken into account. However, if you were contracted out for long periods (into an employer/private pension), then you might only be entitled to as little as £125 p/w. If the state pension checker says you are entitled to less than £165p/w then it may be worth YOU buying extra NI years. Each extra week costs £13.25, and entitles you to about £4.50 per week extra. It therefore only takes 3 years to break even. However, before you do anything, check what your current entitlement is. There are some gotchas where buying the wrong NI years do not increase your SP.
For SWIMBO - How old is she? - Check what she is currently entitled to. She'll get nowt unless she gets to 10 years NI contribs by her SP age. She should have got credits for looking after any kids (whilst claiming Child Benefit) up to age 14 IIRC. So if you've got any kids, then she should have more than 7 or 8 years (at least 14 plus 3 auto credits for 16-18)? If no kids, and assuming she's not up for popping another sprog at her time of life just to get the free NI credits
, then yes it's almost certainly worth topping up her NI record. I believe she can buy any unpaid years back to 2006, so potentially she could add another 12 years. AIUI each additional year would cost around £700 and would be worth around £4.50 per week extra pension. She can also buy any years between now and when she reaches her SP age, although you cannot buy the year in which you reach SP age.
The SP is incredibly good value for money, but you do have to have the spare cash to buy the extra years, and then live at least 3 years for it to pay you back. After that it's all free money. And yes they may change the rules again, but the more people you piss off, the less likely you are to get re-elected, and pissing off (soon to be) pensioners is usually a bad idea.