Martin Lewis issued a warning about the state pension on his ITV programme on Tuesday night (October 25) - and accidentally caused the government website to crash.
The MoneySavingExpert shared his advice on adding £5,500 to your state pension pot, but warned that time was running out to do so. He explained that a new state pension system was introduced in 2016 which requires you to pay National Insurance in at least 35 separate qualifying years to be able to claim the maximum amount.
But those who began their NI record before 2016 might need more than 40 years to qualify. Those people can 'buy' extra years for £800 per year to become eligible - which could net you over £5,000 a year back, Martin said.
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Martin said: "If you're aged 45 to 70 you need to check ASAP if you can boost your state pension."
He then warned that the opportunity is time-sensitive, adding: "This is the bit that's time sensitive. Until April 2023 you can buy National Insurance years back to 2006. 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.
"So if you live three years beyond the state pension age, you're quids in."
He shared the link for National Insurance here, before the website crashed. After the programme, he posted to Twitter: "OK it looks like we've crashed the govt site too now..."
Men aged 66 live for another 19 years on average, so each £800 spent could add an extra £5,300 to their state pension.
Women aged 66 typically live another 21 years, so each £800 NI year bought adds an additional £5,800.
But Lewis urged viewers to be careful and do their own research before committing.
"Don't rely solely on what you're hearing me say - always contact the Government Future Pensions Centre to work out what would happen in your case before you pay any money out," he said.
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