State Pension estimate at gov.uk

I don't know but am interested in the answer if anyone does...?

I haven't requested a state pension forecast for a year or so but it did assume I'd make full NI contributions until my state retirement age. On the capture it stated "You need to continue to contribute National Insurance to reach your forecast".

The new flat rate state pension came into effect for retirees from 6 April 2016.  I believe that if you'd of been awarded more under the old system then this will be what you receive instead of that calculated from the new flat rate pension.   The full flat rate pension requires 35 qualifying years and accrues at £4.55 per qualifying year to provide the full flat rate pension of £159.55 per week.  Deductions are made for years in which you were contracted out.  The old scheme required 30 qualifying years accruing the basic element of the state pension at £4.08 per year to provide the full basic state pension of £122.30 per week.  This was increased by the additional state pension through SERPS and SSP when not contracted out.

If your forecast if £167 then this must be calculated under the old scheme (given it's more that the full flat rate), in which you have the full 30 qualifying years with the full basic of £122.30 and £44.70 of additional state pension.  I think this means that additional NI credits will gain you nothing in terms of your state pension because you can't increase your additional state pension element (SSP was abolished when the new flat rate pension was introduced).

It's always worth checking that HMRC have your NI contributions recorded correctly.  The way I tracked my contracted in/out periods whilst PAYE was to look at the NI category on P60s - A was contracted in, D was contracted out.

This is my own understanding so please DYOR (do your own research)!  And please point out anything I've got wrong.

Weirdly enough, I was looking at this last night, except from a pure NI point of view. Not sure if this is just integrated into what you were looking at anyway, but just in case..

www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

Here you can access all of the detail of the exact years the Govt believe you have Full/partial/not qualifying NI years for and exactly how much you're on target for with the current system. I was quite pleasantly surprised with how accurate it seemed to be for me.

Edit: crossed with bracknellboy - yes my night shifts stacking shelves at ASDA as a 17 year old didn't go unnoticed!

dan1: thanks for that. I suspect then you must be right: that possibly I just scraped through the trap of the 35 year and contract out issue. It was definitely telling me I could not improve but that I would still have to pay NI (or might have to, to be precise). I may have another look at my NI record online to see whether it is clear when was contracted out. I certainly don't have my p45s going back far enough to figure it out !

Still, but the time I'm eligible it will have all changed again so possibly a bit academic.

Thin sandwiches were much MUCH better 

Nope nothing to do with me, I was just minding my own business doing my A levels, but apparently it counted. The only year I don't have full credits for is the tailend of U6th-1st 2 terms of Uni. After that my thin sandwich with 6months employment each year was clearly enough to tide me over until full time employment. Potentially going to need to make a few years of voluntary contributions tho. 

I am in a similar situation:

Lower sixth year: No paid employment + 52 weeks of NI credits = Full year
Upper sixth year: £14.08 paid employment?! + 52 weeks of NI credits = Full year
1st year of Uni: £31.89 paid employment?! + 52 weeks of NI credits = Full year
2nd year of Uni: £31.89 of paid employment?! + no NI credits = Year is not full
3rd year of Uni: £127.66 of paid employment?! + no NI credits = Year is not full

What gives?