Martin Lewis issues £51,000 warning to state pensioners born after 1953

Martin Lewis has warned people who are state pensioners born after 1951 to check whether they could boost their National Insurance contributions. The Money Saving Expert founder has a guide to boosting State Pension payments on his Money Saving Expert website.

Writing for the latest newsletter from his MoneySavingExpert website, ITV and BBC star Martin said: "There is a potentially unbeatable opportunity everyone aged 40 to 73(ish) needs to consider. You've got until 5 April 2025 to buy back any missing national insurance years from 2006 to 2016.

"This can be prove very lucrative, as some are on course to make over £50,000 in boosts to their state pension by following this guide." MSE added a caveat, saying the warning is for men born after 5 April 1951 (currently aged up to 73) and women born after 5 April 1953 (currently up to 71).

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"Born earlier? You're on the old state pension, so this doesn't apply," it said. Martin said: "Most collect NI years through working and paying NI, but you can also get them if you're claiming benefits or caring for others.

"In general, you need around 35 full NI years to get the maximum state pension, though some will need a lot more (we've seen examples of people needing 44+ years) depending on your age and NI record up to now. Normally you can buy back up to six years, but when the 'new' state pension was introduced, transitional arrangements were put in place to let you plug gaps all the way back to 2006.

"This was due to end on 5 April 2023, and then 31 July 2023, but because so many people were trying, the necessary government phone lines got clogged up (mainly due to Martin shouting from the rooftops about it). So the date has been extended to 5 April 2025."

Check your national insurance record to see if you have any missing years - for each year it will either say 'full year' or 'year is not full'. Then, Martin says s ee if you can plug gap FREE with NI credits and w ork out if you should pay. D on't pay until you're confident- because n ot everyone will be better off.

If you're likely to have a low income and will only rely on state pension, pension credit may cover the gap. The gains from buying extra years may be reduced if it pushes you into a higher tax bracket, Mr Lewis adds.

One Martin Lewis fan said they had followed his advice and added £49 a week to their pension. Martin said: "To put that in context, Martine paid up to £5,000 (it may've been far less) to increase her state pension by £2,550 a year. If she lives for the typical 20 years after state pension age, that'd be a total uplift of around £51,000... and it's inflation-proofed."