How to check your State Pension forecast (and spot NI gaps)

How to check your forecast

1. Go to the service. Open Check your State Pension forecast on GOV.UK, or use the HMRC app.
2. Sign in. If you do not have sign-in details yet, you can create them as you go.
3. Prove your identity if asked. This normally involves photo ID such as a passport or driving licence.
4. Read your forecast. It shows how much you could get, when you can get it, and how you could increase it.
5. Open your National Insurance record from the same account to see which years count.

Prefer paper? Fill in form BR19 and post it, or call the Future Pension Centre and they will post a forecast to you. The service is not available if you are already getting your State Pension or have deferred it.

How to read it

• Your forecast is what you could get if you keep paying National Insurance, or getting credits, until State Pension age. It is in today’s money.
• Your amount so far is based on your record today. If this is lower than your forecast, the difference depends on the years still to come.
• Your State Pension age is shown too. You can also check it with our pension age checker.
• Ways to increase it are shown if paying voluntary contributions for past gaps could add to your pension.

If you worked before April 2016 and were contracted out through a workplace scheme, your forecast may show you need more than 35 years. That is normal, and it is why the official forecast beats any rule of thumb.

Spotting gaps in your NI record

Your National Insurance record lists each tax year as full or not full. Common reasons for a gap:

• Years living or working abroad
• Low earnings, below the lower earnings limit, with no credits
• Self-employment with low profits
• Time out of work without claiming benefits that give credits
• Caring for someone without claiming Carer’s Allowance or Carer’s Credit

Some gaps are filled automatically by credits, for example if you claimed Child Benefit for a child under 12. If a year looks wrong, contact HMRC before paying anything.

Should you fill a gap?

Often, but only if it increases your pension. In 2026 to 2027 a year of voluntary Class 3 contributions costs £18.40 a week, or £956.80 a year, and can add about £6.89 a week to your State Pension for life, roughly £359 a year.

• Check first. If you will reach 35 qualifying years anyway before State Pension age, filling an old gap may not add anything. Your forecast and the Future Pension Centre can tell you.
• Time limits. You can usually pay for gaps in the past 6 tax years. The special extension that let people go back to 2006 ended on 5 April 2025.
• Class 2 contributions, £3.65 a week, may be available instead if you were self-employed or living abroad in certain circumstances.

Questions people ask