State pension top-up calculator
One of the best-value buys in personal finance.
Buying back a missing National Insurance year costs a fixed amount and adds a fixed amount to your State Pension for life. See your own payback point below, then check gov.uk before you buy anything.
Before you buy anything
This tool shows you the arithmetic. It cannot see your National Insurance record, so it cannot tell you whether buying a year actually helps you.
- Check your NI record and forecast first. gov.uk will show you exactly which years are missing and what your State Pension is on track to be. Always start there, not here.
- Do not buy a year you would fill anyway. If work, self-employment or credits (for things like Child Benefit or unemployment) are already going to fill a gap before State Pension age, paying for it buys you nothing.
- Some gaps are cheaper than a full year. If only a few weeks are missing, gov.uk will often quote a part-year price below the full weekly rate used here.
- Older gaps have deadlines. The further back a missing year sits, the sooner your window to buy it back can close. Check the date before you decide.
- Being contracted out changes the sums. If you were ever contracted out of the additional State Pension, your own numbers can differ from the standard figures used here.
This tool points at the opportunity. Only your own gov.uk forecast confirms you are eligible to buy it.
Your numbers
A rough guess is fine - even a cautious one usually clears the payback point easily.
Buying 3 years
Pays for itself in about
years
Buying 3 years costs £2,870 and adds £1,074 a year to your State Pension for life. That pays for itself in about 2.7 years. Over 20 years of drawing your pension, that is a net gain of £18,610.That’s true whether you buy one year or ten - buying more costs proportionally more, and pays back proportionally more.
£2,870
£1,074
£18,610
Lifetime gain is what you’re ahead by after 20 years of drawing the extra pension, once the £2,870 cost is paid off.
The picture
Your pension income climbs every year you draw it. The cost was paid once, right at the start.
| Year | Cumulative pension received | Cost of buying the years |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | £0 | £2,870 |
| 1 | £1,074 | £2,870 |
| 2 | £2,148 | £2,870 |
| 3 | £3,222 | £2,870 |
| 4 | £4,296 | £2,870 |
| 5 | £5,370 | £2,870 |
| 6 | £6,444 | £2,870 |
| 7 | £7,518 | £2,870 |
| 8 | £8,592 | £2,870 |
| 9 | £9,666 | £2,870 |
| 10 | £10,740 | £2,870 |
| 11 | £11,814 | £2,870 |
| 12 | £12,888 | £2,870 |
| 13 | £13,962 | £2,870 |
| 14 | £15,036 | £2,870 |
| 15 | £16,110 | £2,870 |
| 16 | £17,184 | £2,870 |
| 17 | £18,258 | £2,870 |
| 18 | £19,332 | £2,870 |
| 19 | £20,406 | £2,870 |
| 20 | £21,480 | £2,870 |
How this works
Buying a full Class 3 voluntary National Insurance year costs £18.40 (2026 to 2027 tax year) a week - £956.80 (2026 to 2027 tax year (derived: £18.40 x 52)) for the year - and adds about £358 (2026 to 2027 tax year; MoneySavingExpert page updated 14 July 2026) a year to the new State Pension for life, whichever year you buy.
These figures aren’t adjusted for inflation or the State Pension’s triple lock over the years you draw it - in practice the triple lock tends to keep the State Pension rising at least as fast as prices, so the real payback is likely at least this quick. State Pension income can be taxable alongside your other income in retirement; the numbers above are before tax. This is not financial advice. These are ideas to make you a little bit richer.
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