The UK Government recently announced that people now have until the end of July to plug any gaps in their National Insurance record which will help top-up their State Pension payments when they retire. The April 5 deadline was extended until July 31 after phone lines to the Future Pension Centre became clogged as people rushed to buy missing years.
The extension means people can buy missing years going back to 2006 which counts towards their State Pension - after that, they can only go back six tax years. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has now revealed that more than half a million calls to the dedicated phone number have been received over the last four weeks.
Pensions Minister, Laura Trott MP, also shared that in a “normal month”, the DWP would typically receive 30,000 to 50,000 calls. She added that “additional staff have been deployed as quickly as possible” and measures are now in place to direct people to the online service at GOV.UK.
