If you have not paid (or been credited with paying) enough National Insurance contributions you will receive a letter (called a ‘deficiency notice’) from The Pension Service at the end of a tax year, explaining your options. For instance, it may be possible to pay extra contributions (called ‘voluntary contributions’) to make up for low contributions in previous ones.

Usually, you have to pay additional contributions within six years of the end of the tax year that the payment is for. However, the deficiency notices for the tax years 1996-1997 to 2001-2002 were not sent out until 2004 and 2005. Because of this, there are special arrangements for people wanting to pay voluntary contributions for these years to improve their state pension.

The Pension Service has produced a factsheet that explains this in more detail, and also explains what you should do if you think you may be affected. The factsheet is called Buying voluntary contributions for tax years 1996/7 to 2001/2 to improve your State Pension.

For a copy of the factsheet visit their website