Martin Lewis issued important advice about the State Pension on the latest episode of his show - and so many viewers took action that the Government website crashed.
The MoneySavingExpert founder explained how people could get a boost to their State Pension during ITV 's The Martin Lewis Money Show - but warned that they needed to act soon to reap the benefits. The advice was issued to anyone aged between 45 and 70, and Martin shared how they could get £5,500 added to their State Pension pot.
The financial expert explained that a new State Pension system was introduced in 2016, which requires you to pay National Insurance in at least 35 qualifying years to be able to claim the maximum sum. But those who started their National Insurance record before 2016 - which Martin said would be “pretty much anyone” aged 45-70 - may need more than 40 years to qualify, the Manchester Evening News reports .
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To make this change smoother for people, there is the option to ‘plug gaps’ in your National Insurance record back to 2006 as part of ‘transitional arrangements’ that are currently in place. This means you can ‘buy’ extra years for £800 - which Martin said could boost your pension by over £5,000.
However, the expert warned that time was running out to take this action, urging people aged 45-70 to “check asap” if they can add money to their State Pension. “This is the bit that's time sensitive - until April 2023 you can buy National Insurance years back to 2006,” he explained.
“After that, you can only go back 6 years. So if you have National Insurance gaps between 2006 and 2017, you need to decide soon whether you are going to buy them or you will lose the opportunity to do so.
“One year of National Insurance eligibility costs £800 and it adds around £275 a year to your State Pension. So the break-even point is three years - if you live three years beyond the State Pension age, you're quids in.”
Men aged 66 live for another 19 years on average, so each £800 spent could add an additional £5,300 to their State Pension. Meanwhile, women aged 66 typically live another 21 years, so each £800 National Insurance year bought adds an extra £5,800.
Martin directed viewers to the gov.uk website to check their State Pension entitlement and National Insurance record, also sharing the links from his Twitter account. But just minutes later the website appeared to go down due to the volume of people rushing to follow his advice, with Martin tweeting: “Ok it looks like we’ve crashed the govt site now too… oops.”
However, the expert urged viewers to take further steps to make sure that the method was right for them before paying any money out. The MoneySavingExpert website warns people not to pay until they have called the government’s pension helplines.
“There are many complexities, so the only way to know for sure if this is likely to benefit you is to get personalised information from the Future Pension Centre or the Pension Service,” the website advises.
“Both services provide specific information about your current national insurance record. They'll tell you whether doing so will actually result in any increase to your (eventual) state pension. It is possible to pay to plug a gap and see no gain, which is why this step is so important.”
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