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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Shane Hickey

Mind the gap: why filling the holes in your NI record could pay dividends

NI HMRC Tom Selby
Miniature models of office workers on a pile of £1 and £2 coins and £5, £10 and £20 notes.
Typically you can only pay voluntary national insurance contributions going back six years. But until 5 April, it has been extended back to the 2006-07 tax year. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

There has been a surge in the number of people who have boosted their state pension pots, potentially netting them thousands of pounds more for their retirement.

Figures from HM Revenue and Customs showed about 23,000 ­people handed over a total of £27m in the space of about 10 days earlier this month. They were paying to fill gaps in their national insurance (NI) records in order to improve their eventual state pension.

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