Martin Lewis says state pensioners born in these years can add £6,100 to their pension | Personal Finance

Martin Lewis is encouraging people to add up to £6,100 to the state pension fund before the deadline passes and you can never claim the money again.

The financial expert has been pushing hard on the issue of missing Social Security contributions, as the deadline to fill in the missing years on your record approaches quickly with each month of 2024.

Money-saving expert says spending just £824 on ‘buying back’ a lost year on your National Insurance record with HMRC could be hugely profitable, turning into up to £6,100 a year in annual state pension value paid when you retire.

If you live an average life, this could add up to an extra £79,000 in your pension pot.

And the value of this will increase as you get closer to retirement age. Martin Lewis says that everyone aged between 40 and 73, therefore born between 1951 and 1974, should strongly consider doing this.

Each year you miss – for example, if you didn’t earn enough, or were sick or abroad – could add up to £5,400 a year to your state pension if you were a man, and £6,100 a year if you’re women, based in average life expectancy.

If you miss 13 years and buy them all back, that makes a total of £79,300 extra on your state pension if you’re a woman and £70,200 if you’re a man if you live an average lifespan.

Martin Lewis’ MSE website adds: “There is a potentially unbeatable opportunity that everyone aged between 40 and 73 needs to consider. You have until 5 April 2025 to buy back any years of National Insurance lost from 2006 to 2016. This could be Very lucrative as some are on track to earn over £50,000 in increases to their state pension by following this guide.

“This is for men born after April 5, 1951 (currently up to age 73) and women born after April 5, 1953 (currently up to age 71). “

“Normally you can buy back up to six years, but when the ‘new’ state pension was introduced, transitional measures were put in place to allow you to fill gaps since 2006.”

One viewer of Martin Lewis’ ITV Money Show managed to add up to £74,000 to his pension pot, but most people can earn at least £50,000.

Martin told his viewers: “If there are gaps between 2006 and 2018, you need to think about it this year because you can only do it until next April.

“If you’re almost at state pension age, it’s easy to see, it’s quite obvious that you should buy them.

“The older you are, the more likely you are to buy them. If there are no gaps after 2019, you can still buy them to wait and see.

“You need a minimum of 10 years to receive a state pension, so a warning here.

“If you only have three years and you have three years to go, there’s no point buying those three years because you’ll still only have six years and you still won’t get the state pension.

“If, however, you have nine years and you can buy a year, suddenly you will have 10/35 of your pension and it will be extremely profitable, worth £3,000 a year for £800. So if you have very limited years, It could be very profitable or unprofitable.”