Quote Originally Posted by IanD View Post
Another complication. If you are in a final salary scheme (eg teachers, police) you will have paid a reduced level of National Insurance contributions. Even if you pay (or qualify for) NI for 35 years you wont get a full state pension unless you wish to top up with additional voluntary NICs. In my case I need about 39 years to get near a full state pension. The 40th year is probably not a good investment in terms of paying a voluntary NIC as I will have overpaid and not get the money back through the pension for many years.
Thanks for that. I was on a final salary scheme and I think that was the reason behind the latest pension estimate being below the 'new' maximum - although I qualify for the new full basic. It wasn't as clear on the gov.uk site as it could have been - but what I took from it was that I had already got the benefit of the slightly higher rate in my occupational pension - and it didn't look worthwhile to top up my contributions in a few short years to qualify for the new higher rate. I'm sure it was simpler before the latest changes.