If you can not work because of Illness, and can no longer claim benefits what happens to your National Insurance contributions (aged 55 with full NI contributions to date)? Thank you.
if you dont have the full required years you will get a reduced pension....you can work out how much it will cost to make up the remaining years ...and see how long in your pension years it will take to recoup what you paid out. I was 5(?) years short, paid the extra contributions several years ago...£2000 ish i think... and i will get that back in a couple of years when i start getting the state pension... so for me it will be worth it. (The reduction is quite a lot when you haven't paid enough years) You can find it all at gov.uk.
I haven't checked, but I'm fairly sure that you need 35 qualifying years in order to receive the full state pension. Any more qualifying years won't add anything to your final pension, so if you've already got 35 years, there's no point in adding more if you don't need to.
Are you not eligible for any benefits at all, not even JSA, then? Anyway as others have said once you get to pension age you'll get a large share of the full state pension. Hopefully you have some means of support for the next 12 years though before you reach pension age
Here's how it was explained to me by the .gov site. I had paid the maximum 30 years pre 2016, then came the rule change. I now have to pay the remaining years from 2016 until my retirement age in full to qualify for the full state pension, meaning I will have paid 40 years with a 6 year gap.
I looks like I may be ok but will double check- How much is an NI contribution I have only every been PAYE and won’t have an income apart from Personal Independent Payment after August!
I'd always assumed PIP was classed as a benefit. You should check with DWP whether you will also get NI credits from your pIP-. You may be able to tell from your online NI record regarding past pcontributions
I will lose my SDP Severe Disability Premium and my Employment Support Allowance (Support Group) in August - The ESA is the benefit which carries the NI contribution!