Money expert Martin Lewis has shared how people can still get a state pension top-up if they were one of thousands that were locked out of securing their entitlement due to a HMRC error.
Most people under 73 had until 5 April to boost their state pension amounts for retirement in just a few straightforward steps. This was the deadline to ‘buy back’ any missing national insurance years from 2006 to 2018 – a crucial element in securing the most out of the state pension.
The government put the deadline in place to ensure that those who could be affected by the new state pension transitional arrangements have time to secure the full amount. It covers the years between 6 April 2006 and 5 April 2018, while people can continue to always fill in gaps over the last six years.
The final deadline for this was 5 April a 11:59am. However, thousands of users reported finding that the HMRC’s online service was not working for them, meaning they were unable to meet the deadline.
This is because the form was mistakenly taken offline a day early, affecting 21,000 eligible people who tried to log in on Saturday. HMRC says it is able to identify all of the customers who visited the site on this date.
An HMRC spokesperson said: “We’re sorry that customers were unable to use our online service on Saturday to top up National Insurance contributions for years prior to 2021. We will contact anyone affected directly about the payments they wanted to make to ensure they don’t miss out.”
But Mr Lewis’ Money Saving Expert website has also advised those affected: “it's worth hanging onto any proof you took of the problems, such as screenshots. And if you don't hear anything, you can try to contact HMRC yourself via its various NI channels.”
The issue should not affect those who requested a call back from the DWP before the deadline, with this service being unaffected by the issues.
In March, Mr Lewis issued a deadline warning to anyone who thought they might be eligible to top up their state pensions.
Unfortunately, anyone who had not begun their application by 5 April has now missed out on the chance to top up their national insurance contributions from 2006. However, the service allowing savers top top up for the past six years always remains live, currently going back to 2019/20.
