Amazing video, A friend of mine referred me to a financial adviser sometime ago and we got to talking about investment and money. I started investing with $150k and in the first 2 months, my portfolio was reading $274,800. Crazy right!, I decided to reinvest my profit and get more interesting. For over a year we have been working together making consistent profit just bought my second home 2 weeks ago and care for my family.

Excellent! Thank you very much, Dianne, for sharing! Very useful advice and tips! 👍

Thank you once again Diane. As previously mentioned I have gaps in NI contributions which under certain circumstances would open the door to a range of benefits. I have to say that being still years away from the state pension the government forecast states that I am entitled to a full basic state pension and this cannot be improved and any NI contributions would from now on go to the NHS and other public services. It's a fundamentally flawed system, and yes I did pay many thousands into the NI pot already. Why not pay state pensions out according to contributions rather than a uniform state pension for everyone. One of the other commentators is right, it feels more of a state benefit rather than a pension. If I stopped working for the next few years it would dent my basic pension payment. Essentially I would be subsidising rather than building up the state pension further.

My mother who passed away 2 years ago aged 97 paid great attention to the pension rules. She qualified for pension credit, and as you say, it opens many doors. It lead to her service charges being paid (she owned he leasehold flat outright) , council tax being paid, it made the application for mobility allowance much easier, and it qualified her for fully paid social care at home. She lived independently in her own home until a few days before her death from old age. As executor for her estate I estimate the pension credit lead to £20,000 (and it could be double that) in additional income and savings.

Having been through a review of my HMRC status recently, the costs for filling gaps is all laid out under one's HMRC account. Deadlines for topping up keep getting extended; most likely cause for this is the hugely time-consuming & difficult process of getting personal advice out of HMRC.😢

its a very good point you raised Dianna about pension credit, i have not seen this mentioned on other people's vlogs. Also people should not rely on the forecast on the government website as this does not include if you contracted out of SERPS, some people do not know if they had been contracted out of SERPS, some people will be in for a shock to find the will not actually get the pension that is shown on the government website & may be a lot lower even if they hsve worked over 35 years.

🤗 thank you for this update

It is incorrect to say that you cannot pay Gaps in your ni over six year's ago you can but you only have till 2025 to do this I think you can pay from 2006 (I think) it should have ended in 2024 but they extended it

Always worth checking online your NI Payments i was missing one year completely even though I had been working for same company through that period the records had not been uploaded I had to get confirmation from company and then year was added but was worth checking anyway.

Back dating to 2006 was extended to the end of this tax year.

Really useful video - thank you!

Thank you so much for your help, but if don't know you anyone can help me, with this next question, I live in French but have never worked here as my now X husband did. Can I get any extra help from tax credit or the like, as my state pension is only worth 102 pounds a week and I am totally reliant on that and have no other income or savings

I worked in Canada officially for 12 years. I understand they take this into account due to the tax treaty however this will not be confirmed until I am ready to retire which is not for another 12 years or so, by which time it will be too late to back date payments. So this is not an ideal situation!! 😥

People still believe that the state pension is not a benefit. It absolutely is and can be changed or withdrawn by the government.

what a minefield to navigate what is right today might be wrong in the future

Please fill in gaps in your state pension. Most people can’t afford a private pension which is generally based on stocks and shares. Pension credits could be removed at any time.

Thank you, very helpful

I am fast approaching 66 and due my pension next March, I have checked my forecast regularly and it stated that I have 35 full years but my pension payment will be £180 per week. That is definitely not the full amount, when I queries it with HMRC last week they said 35 is only approximate and that the company I worked for could have opted out at some point meaning I hadn’t got the full years even though it says I have. So confusing, no idea what to do now for the best.

If I had followed their advice and paid to cover my gaps I would have been shafted even more than I have been as A WASPI. I had more than paid enough contributions by the time those bar stewards paid me my pension. My advice…. Give them nothing because that’s what you will get back.

I’ve got so many gaps as was self employed for many years (Taxi driving) I paid my tax but always seemed never to have enough cash for the NI so would leave it till later in year and then seemed to forget about it most years. It would cost me a small fortune to pay. 15 plus I think. At 53 I am full time carer for my mum (93) at the moment so can’t afford to top up. Because I get carers allowance they are paying it for me at the moment. But when my mum goes I don’t think I will pay anymore contributions. I hope to be left enough money to buy a house which I will do up and sell on, as I can do everything from plumbing electrics plastering carpentry ect. So hopefully do that a couple of times to make some money then I won’t be able to afford to live my property, so will rent it out and find a cheaper way to live, possibly off grid somewhere ! And if not pension credit it is lol !

I am surprised that the figures for people living only on the state pension are as low as you say though in theory with people more aware of saving for later in life it should drop. Then again with everything so expensive now it could possibly rise as people have to live for today and paying your rent / mortgage, bills and general living will come before paying into a private pension. Going by this video, if you have a smallish private pension pot of less than £100,000 you could be worse off than someone only on the state pension and claiming pension credit. If you had contracted out as well in the past you cannot buy back those years either (if you wanted to) either? Any chance you could explain why that if you contracted out yet had paid 35 full years NI, so worked 50 years contracted out for a maximum of 15 years leaving 35 years of full payments you are still given the estimated figure you would have had if you had not contracted out. My assumption is that as the new state pension came in in 2015 then you have to knock 9 years off for the period from then up to now? So you’re now 66, 50 years working. Thats 41 years working up to 2015 and the new state pension and the end of contracting out. The 15 years you were contracted out is deducted from the 41 years which leaves you paying in fully on 26 years to the NI system as it was up to 2015. Is that more or less how its worked out? I would recommend that no one defers taking the state pension more than 18 months as statistically your not likely to live long enough that the increased amount you receive from deferring will cover the amount you had not taken in that 18 month period. It would not surprise me if at some future date whoever is in government will means test the state pension. Great video overall and relevant to a very large majority of pensioners particularly if your approaching retirement.

Thks for the info.

I took early retirement and already have the full qualifying years but I now have two years gaps which would cost around £824 and £850 to fill. Be aware that paying for these gaps is pointless as it will not result in any enhanced payment. I wonder how many people fall for that.

Can you top up your national insurance for years previous years outside of the time limits mentioned here? I was given bad advice to opt out around 2001 and lost 2 years. In addition I also was in the local government superannuation scheme from 88-99 which I believe also opted out.

I've got 41 full years of contributions, but will get a reduced pension because I was contracted out. I understand that buying extra years before 2016 won't do anything to address this, but buying missing years from 2016 onwards would add 1/35th of the full pension for each year onwards. Would be grateful if someone could confirm this, and point out any downside risk. I'm currently 64 so need to make a decision by next summer about whether to this or not.

So more benefits for people who have put less into the system, its just wrong.

I have 36 years of Nic's , 30 of those were contracted out so I have a company pension too. I do not get the full state pension because of this however trying to top up to get the new full state pension would be money down the drain asIt won't make any difference. As it is at the moment I'm about £2k a year worse off on state pension about £40 per week. this gap will grow incrementally as yearly triple lock is applied to each pension old and New.

It is just a crazy system. People who have worked and saved should be better off than someone on benefits but the benefits should also provide an acceptable standard of living for those in retirement. I feel sorry for the youngsters who probably will be working well into their seventies if capable.

I’ve noticed the wording - 35 years required for full state pension is no longer shown on HMRC website/ app.

Can’t rely on benefits they change too much and take a lot of stress applying for and renewing. Fight for workplace pensions join a union

Whats pension credit.i got working tax credits but wont get universal credit from next year as have over the 16k in savings limit .

I chose not to top up because they keep putting back the retirement age. And by the time I can retire I will have enough years of NI anyway

I have been lucky to retire early taking a small work pension and with my husband's state pension, plus his small pension we can manage. I got a state pension review and I'm one year short of the full 35 qualifying years, I've decided not to pay that one year, I have 4 more years left until I get my state pension, I don't see me doing back into full time work but if I did them the one year work be filled. For tax purposes unless they raise the threshold then I think I'll be better off with a small amount taken off my state pension + private pension keeping me under the threshold 🤞

Does this mean that at state retirement age if you have no other income then your income will be topped up to the equivalent of full state pension? And according to the benefit checkers I have used, you will get rent and council tax paid? When I do the maths that's a bit more than I end up with on an occupational pension, and I live perfectly well on this. So why do we hear about so many pensioners living in poverty? It could only be that either they are home-owners and have high associated costs, or they are not claiming their entitlement. The latter is concerning. My NI contributions are just a few years short. I'm not going to pay. If nothing changes i would get the money back by about age 70, but I fee l it is crystal ball territory. Someone made a good point in your comments that in the future we may have to pay NI for even more years in order to receive full pension, but I'm still not making up the shortfall, unless I win money in a raffle/premium bonds, but I certainly won't pay it out of income or savings. And the gain is not as much as some people say, as many of us will pay income tax on the state pension.

Hi just came across your video & have subscribed to it, great informative information .just when I go onto the gov website to check my pension &NI I also see a message saying I cannot improve on this(figures I assume)?

So if you pay it from 16 to 51 you get it anyway the full state pension?

Dont buy stamps if you dont have enough stamps it will be made up by pension credits which is a benifit and this will give you more money because being on a benifit gives you entitlement to things like no council tax and low income benifits. I have full stamps and am Worst off.

I cashed in me private pension put half in stocks n shares isa and rest in normal isa .felt too many charges in the novia pension i was in

what about auto enrolment that is being forced upon us

It seems very strange to me. The entire system seems flawed, it is surely better to just get rid of the qualifying years test entirely and give everyone a full pension. People who are in work will have contributed to a private pension since a decade ago, or should have arranged something if they are self-employed, that's the boost they get for being employed. Note that Stay At Home Mums get 12 years NI credit at least if they are in receipt of child benefit (even if it's paid back), as long as a child is under 12, also people off work long-term sick, and I believe jobseekers. Older people got three years because of university too.

What is the risk of the government changing the rules between now and when I get my pension,( 8 years time), meaning that I will need more than 35 years of contributions? I currently have 35 years of qualifying contributions but no longer work and have zero income, living off savings and my partners income. I feel I need to go past the 35 years so I safeguard myself to ensure I do actually get the full state pension. Is this sensible or money down the drain? My partner will have a sizeable private pension, I will have a very small private pension. I am pretty sure we will not qualify for any other benefits come retirement.

I'm one the people who is worse-off for having paid full NI contributions. To make things worse I have to listen to a friend on Pension Credit telling me how much better-off he is and refusing to believe I am not getting the same benefits as him!😡

Morning Dianne, im in this exact group. A few years NI missing etc. Have an MOD pension due at 60, (3 years from). I think that will push me over the threshold. I won't be adding to my NI record. Especially with the incoming party/Govt being in chage

Pension credit is a farce. My pension is only £152.19 and that includes graduated pension that i paid extra for and a full 25 PENCE a week for being 80 years old! first I couldn't apply because my wife was below pension age so I am also treated as below pension age which was made worse when they changed womens pension age from 60 to 66 causing me to have to wait a further 6 years before I am classed as a pensioner. Now she does receive her pension (a reduced pension also) but I am still not eligible because our combined reduced pensions are above the threshold to receive pension credit. The answer, I am told, is to divorce my wife and I will then be eligible. I do not understand why I had to have 14 years NI more than others just because I was born in 1943. 44 years they tell me I needed but I only had 39 so lost a lot of my pension but others slightly younger only needed 30 years. Why? I Started to work at 15 (1958) and paid NI out of my then £3 a week salary but I can't afford to live at 80. What a crazy world we live in, work a lifetime and end up in poverty.

I have a small private pension of ~ 6k/year, topping up my state pension will take me above the current tax theshold of 12.5k. Any thoughts Dianne?

it. is critical that contact is made with the >gov contact, the numbers displayed are only a guide and you will receive ZERO benefit for paying some years. speak to them

Do you honestly think that anybody wants to be dependent on pension credit??

If U turn stazi starmer gets in they will take your money

I've never heard something so stupid..... use your pension pot to pay off your credit card. The dumbest thing I've ever heard.