UncleEbenezer wrote:According to state pension forecast, I need to pay three more years NI:
Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2021 £169 a week
Forecast if you contribute another 3 years before 5 April 2028 £179.60 a week
OK, so pay another three years, right?
If you want the (current) maximum of £179.60, yes. However, note that every additional (post 2016) year (currently) gets you an additional £179.60/35 = £5.13 per week. So, if you were to pay only two more years you'd get pretty close to the max with £169 + (2 * £5.13) = £179.26 per week.
Of course, if you'll be contributing involuntarily (i.e. 'cos you're working) then you'll be paying the third year anyway. However, if you'll be making voluntary NICs you may consider if it's worth paying for the third year to get yourself that final 34p per week. That's £17.68 per year, and with the cheapest voluntary NICs (class 2) costing £158.60 for a year, that'll take almost 9 years to payback (flat). And with class 3 voluntary NICs at £800.80 that's 45 years...!
UncleEbenezer wrote:Yet when I view my NI record, it tells me I have 35 complete years. Shouldn't that mean I've already paid enough to take the maximum? Confused!
35 years to get the max only applies to people totally under the new state pension system, i.e. those that started contributing in 2016 or later. For people that made any NI contributions before 2016 it can be more, or even less, than 35 years.
UncleEbenezer wrote:Elsewhere on the site, about contracting out:
Your COPE estimate is £42.93 a week.
This will not affect your State Pension forecast. The COPE amount is paid as part of your other pension schemes, not by the government.
Hmm. I was contracted out for a few years with the Equitable, which of course was robbed to pay the older pensioners. Utmost (who took over my Equitable pension) have quoted me a value that came as a very pleasant surprise, but it won't amount to forty squid a week. Is that subtracted from the £179.60?
No. The COPE was used in figuring out your "2016 starting amount" for your transition-to-new-state-pension calculation and (without asking you for more details about your NI history and running the calculation) was very likely responsible for you needing the 38 years to get the full £179.60, but it doesn't affect either of the headline figures you've been given.