Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an estimate of the number of people who have purchased extra state pension top-ups since 12th October 2015.

The State Pension top up was a scheme introduced on 12 October 2015 and ran until 5 April 2017. The scheme allowed people who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 to obtain extra State Pension income for life by making a voluntary lump sum National Insurance contribution (class 3A). Data was published State Pension top up: 12 Oct 2015 to 17 Sept 2017 (publishing.service.gov.uk) that shows that 13,200 people purchased State Pension top ups. The scheme ended on 5 April 2017, so no further people will be eligible to purchase State Pension top ups by 31 July 2023.Please note, this is a different scheme to VNICs.