Reminder of voluntary contributions deadline

Individuals have just over five months to fill any gaps in their National Insurance records from 2006 onwards to maximise their state pension HMRC has warned.

Voluntary contributions to fill gaps in a person’s National Insurance record can be made up to 5 April 2018. So far more than 10 000 payments worth £12.5m have been made through the new digital service the department has revealed.

The ‘check your state pension forecast’ tool enables people to check if they have gaps in their record calculate if making a payment would increase their state pension and then make a payment if they wish to do so.

Statistics show that most individuals (51%) topped up one year of their record the average online payment was £1 193 and the largest weekly state pension increase was £107.44.

After the...