An online service for people to top up their national insurance record removes lengthy processes but a rush of applications could cause a bottleneck, one campaigner has warned.
Today (April 29) the government announced the 'check your state pension forecast' online service had gone live.
It means people can see how much their state pension could increase and details of the voluntary NI contributions they would need to pay to achieve this.
Until now, the only way to make voluntary contributions was through a two stage phone based process.
Pensions minister, Paul Maynard, said: "The state pension is the foundation of income in retirement, which is why we have introduced this new online tool to help simplify boosting it for those who are able to."
The update was welcomed by LCP partner, Steve Webb, who has campaigned on the issue.
However, he warned there could be the risk of a logjam in the system if many wish to use it.
He said: "Until now people have had to battle through on two different phone lines – one to check with DWP which years they can top up and then one to HMRC to get a reference number to make a payment.
"It must be a step in the right direction to be able to do all of this without hanging on a telephone. However, simply getting your NI record updated by HMRC is only half of the story. It then needs DWP to reassess your state pension entitlement based on your improved contribution record.
"There are already too many cases where people wait months or longer to get their pension figure revised. It is vital that the government puts in place new capacity at DWP to process all of these changes, otherwise they will simply have created a new bottleneck in the system.”
Those who are eligible have until April 2025 to pay voluntary contributions to make up gaps in their NI record between April 6, 2006 and April 5, 2018.
From April 6, 2025, people will only be able to pay voluntary contributions for the previous six tax years.
In 2023, this deadline was extended by the government.
tara.o'connor@ft.com
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