In 2026/27 a full missing year costs £956.80 in voluntary Class 3 contributions and adds at most £241.30 ÷ 35 = £6.89 a week to your new State Pension, so it takes about 139 weeks of pension, around 2.7 years, to get the money back, provided the year actually raises your pension.
Whether it does depends on your record, and the price depends on the year you fill and on the date you pay. This guide works through both, year by year, for payments made in the 2026/27 tax year. To run your own years, use the calculator; start with your National Insurance record and your State Pension forecast on gov.uk, which show your gaps and what filling them would change.
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What a missing year costs in 2026/27
Class 3 contributions are £18.40 a week from 6 April 2026 (Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 s.13(1), as amended by S.I. 2026/231, which sets the same rate in Northern Ireland). A full year of 52 weeks costs £956.80.
Voluntary Class 2 is £3.65 a week, £189.80 for a full year, for self-employed people whose profits are under the small profits threshold of £7,105 (s.11(4) and (6)). It fills a year just as Class 3 does, at a fifth of the price.
Each contribution counts as one week at the lower earnings limit, so 52 fill an empty year (Earnings Factor Regulations 1979, Sch. 1 para 8). A year that is only partly filled needs fewer weeks: your National Insurance record shows how many.
The price depends on when you pay
A Class 3 contribution for an earlier year costs that year's own rate if it is paid by the end of the second tax year after it (s.13(4)). Paid later, it costs the highest rate since then (s.13(6)). For a payment made in 2026/27:
| Year filled | Weekly rate | Full year (52 weeks) | Last day to pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026/27 | £18.40 | £956.80 | 5 April 2033 |
| 2025/26 | £17.75 (its own rate) | £923.00 | 5 April 2032 |
| 2024/25 | £17.45 (its own rate) | £907.40 | 5 April 2031 |
| 2023/24 | £18.40 | £956.80 | 5 April 2030 |
| 2022/23 | £18.40 | £956.80 | 5 April 2029 |
| 2021/22 | £18.40 | £956.80 | 5 April 2028 |
| 2020/21 | £18.40 | £956.80 | 5 April 2027 |
These prices hold for a payment received by 5 April 2027. From 6 April 2027, 2024/25 will no longer be within two years, so it will cost the highest rate up to then, including the 2027/28 rate, which has not been set yet. Voluntary Class 2 follows a shorter rule: its own rate only if paid by the end of the following tax year (s.12(2)-(3)), so in 2026/27, £3.50 a week for 2025/26 and £3.65 for older years.
What a filled year adds
The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026/27 (Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2026, art 6). With no qualifying year before April 2016, you get one thirty-fifth of it for each qualifying year, up to the full rate at 35 years (Pensions Act 2014 s.3). One year is therefore worth £241.30 ÷ 35 = £6.89 a week (£6.8943…), about £358.50 over 52 weeks, in 2026/27 money.
That is a ceiling, not a promise. Every year you can still fill is from April 2016 or later, so £6.89 is the most a year can add, and it adds nothing once you reach the full rate.
The payback time, year by year
Divide the cost by what the year adds each week, and you get the number of weeks of pension it takes to get the money back:
| Year filled (paid in 2026/27) | Cost | Adds | Payback |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026/27, or 2020/21 to 2023/24, Class 3 | £956.80 | £6.89 a week | about 139 weeks (2.7 years) |
| 2025/26, Class 3 | £923.00 | £6.89 a week | about 134 weeks (2.6 years) |
| 2024/25, Class 3 | £907.40 | £6.89 a week | about 132 weeks (2.5 years) |
| A full year of voluntary Class 2 at £3.65 | £189.80 | £6.89 a week | about 27.5 weeks |
This is a length of time drawing your pension, not a rate of return: it leaves out future increases in the State Pension, income tax on it and the value of money over time. It starts when your pension starts.