In the UK you can "catch up" up to 6 missed years in your National Insurance contribution. Assuming you were already paying into the system (basically if you have an NI number, you were). The latest Budget has announced that there will be restrictions on doing this from overseas in the future so sooner not later to do this (Class 2 Contributions will be abolished, but I am unclear as to whether you can still pay in, as a non-resident, post these reforms).Same, and (obviously) I think there are pretty sound reasons to play it this way.We were tempted to buy a SPIA in our early 60s, but decided to hold off until RMDs. Until them, we can live off our taxable account and keep MAGI low, leaving space for ACA subsidies and/or Roth conversions.
I note I do think SS being a partially-deferrable CPI-adjusted annuity is very helpful in this context. It would be nice if we could just buy more of that (loosely speaking I think that is possible in some other countries, like Australia). C'est la vie.
The max you can have is 35 years in the system. I encourage everyone who is potentially eligible to check their forecast pension online (using their NI number). And also any social security equalisation agreements between countries.
Due to an anomaly, retirees to Australia, Canada (possibly NZ) do not enjoy inflation indexation of their Basic State Pension. Retirees to EU countries and to the USA will.
35 years will give you 100% of c £220 per week from your State Pension Age (typically 67 although earlier if you are older). In recent years, increases in the Basic State Pension have been more than inflation due to something called "the Triple Lock".
Statistics: Posted by Valuethinker — Thu Dec 11, 2025 3:52 am — Replies 58 — Views 3244