Coffman,
Absolutely no offence taken. To further prove your depressingly prescient point, Katie Morley possibly pulled a rabbit out of the hat with this one the other week.
The separation of NIC from HMRC and the fact that DWP and HMRC just don't work together has created, potentially, a holy mess. It will be interesting to see if MoD still keeps records (post 2012, it wasn't required to do so) and whether the data that it does hold on you, in respect of your Guaranteed Minimum Pension, equates to that which the government assumes you have.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/12143174/Four-million-people-retiring-from-April-could-get-the-wrong-state-pension.html
In 2008, there was a big drive to empower SP financially. That seems to have withered on the vine though.