Al R - and other experts,
So I now realise that I won't get the full £155 state pension, as my service NI contributions were apparently not at the full rate because of contracting out - but that is offset by getting a bigger service pension than I would have got if I had been contracted in. So overall, I am better off - I think!
It would help if the gov.uk pension forecaster and NI record showed those reduced contributions. My NI record shows that I have 36 'full' years of contributions, but that I will get somewhat less than the full £155 pw. It would help if it said that some, or all, of those years were somewhat less than 'full' contributions.
It also gives me the option to top recent unpaid years, and gives an amount that I can cough up for the last FY:
You can make up the shortfall
Pay a voluntary contribution of £722.80 by 5 April 2023. This shortfall may increase after 5 April 2019.
But it does not indicate how much that would increase my state pension. Is there any way of finding out how much I would need to top it up to get the full state pension - or, conversely, how much I might gain from how much top-up?
And why might the shortfall increase after Apr 2019?