Thanks Stevios, might drop you a line.

Mrs BigJohn had a couple of missing years. It would have been quite a lot to buy those contributions but as we rent a couple of houses she was able to pay the (massively) lower contributions as self employed for those years and now has full entitlement.

If you are already doing a self assessment I’d be tempted to do some very limited part time work. I’m sure you can find something that is worthwhile without being taxing. Gardening, selling on eBay, odd jobs, local shop, etc. A little extra cash and all the NI will be covered

Yeah register as self employed, top tip.

Do some gig economy work, e.g. copy writing copify.com etc.

Hmmm… Actually sounds like that could be a plan

You need to check how many years you have paid as others have said, but be careful on how many years you THINK you have contributed as you may have been opted out (contracted out – SERPS) of state pension at some point.

Cheers. I checked. 33 years full NI, 2 years part payment, and 21/22 not up yet on the gateway.

Check how many years you need in the state pension forecast

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

I suspect it won’t help with NI but you can apply for Personal Independence Payment whether you are working or not. Its designed to help people live with a disability or long term illness, physical or otherwise.

Initially its a phone call then fill in a form online/on paper.

It’s notoriously weighted against the claimant but you have nothing to lose by claiming.

There’s some particularly good forums online to help you avoid some designed in pitfalls when applying.

I did the state pension forecast thing for what I’d get from 2037…

Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2021
£164.76 a week.

Forecast if you contribute another 3 years before 5 April 2037
£179.60 a week,which is the maximum amount.

Plus I have LGPS, not sure what that works out at.