National Insurance Contributions: Voluntary Contributions
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of promoting the National Insurance Credits buy-back scheme for each year since 2015.
Answered by James Murray
All costs involved in promoting the National Insurance (NI) Credits buy-back scheme campaign will be published once it has concluded, as part of the regular transparency reports on GOV.UK.
HMRC and DWP are not able to confirm levels of staffing back to 2015 as this work and resource has not been ringfenced. An estimate of the resource currently deployed to voluntary NI contributions across both Departments (as at February 2025) is c.480 frontline civil servants.
The majority of customers can check for gaps in their NI record and make payment online. HMRC does not record how many people have made use of the National Insurance Credit buy-back scheme each year since 2015. However, I can confirm that since the enhanced online State Pension forecast service was launched on 29 April 2024, 60,000 people have topped up £62 million.
Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →