UK pensions: how to make sure you get the best income in retirement

theguardian.com:

The reason why one in three people won’t even reach the minimum income level in retirement is that they don’t have a proper national insurance (NI) record. You will usually need to have 10 qualifying years to get any new state pension, and 35 to get the full amount (although it does vary). No idea if you have enough qualifying years? Go to gov.uk/check-state-pension. It will give you a forecast for how much your state pension will be, and set out your NI contributions so far. But you will need to sign in using Government Gateway, or register for it if you haven’t used it before.

If you have any gaps in your NI record, you can plug them at a bargain price. Pay £800 now and, if you live a long time, you will get back £5,500-plus in total. If you can afford to hand over £8,000, it could be £55,000 or more.

Pension experts say that using your spare cash to top up your state pension can generate a better rate of return than almost any other way of using your savings.

You can pay voluntary NI contributions at gov.uk/pay-voluntary-class-3-national-insurance but the deadline for rectifying gaps in your record for any year from 2006-07 onwards is 31 July. After that you will only be able to go back six years.

The government programme to bring all your pensions on view in one place, called the pensions dashboard, has been delayed again. Until it comes into operation, you can try to find old pension plans at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details, or check out the Pension Tracing Service. It reckons there is about £20bn lying unclaimed in lost pensions.

Every employer has to automatically enrol workers aged 22 and above, who earn more than £10,000 a year, into a workplace pension scheme – and pay into it. The equivalent of 8% of your