Father trying to check if eligible for UK pension

Hi,

Hoping someone knowledgeable could provide a steer.

My father worked in the UK from about 1972 to 1979, he's been trying to find his national insurance no but to no avail. I suppose two questions are would he qualify for a UK pension as less than 10 years worked there. And also would he qualify for the UK pension bonaza? He would have missed out on any UK pension if he was entitled for the last no of years as now aged 73. How do we go about even getting started? He's not tech savvy so I would have to carry out this on his behalf some evening or weekend. Thank you very much.

Start here

There are hundreds of post explaining how to do this

Find his NI number first, then ring HMRC. The numbers may not add up for you.

From the info, he may be one year too young, but he might possibly qualify for the basic state pension, He would need only one year of NI contributions to get some money. See https://www.gov.uk/state-pension.
If he was born in 1952, then he can only get the new state pension see https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension
He will need min 10 years of NI Cont's to get any pension from this.
BUT; everybody employee gets 3 years NI free gratis in the UK, and this, coupled with his 1972-79 paid contributions may get him to the magic ten.

As DannyBoyD says get his NI number, & Call HMRC.

Thanks a million for advising everyone

@Giggs11 , can you advise where the 3 free years are available? We managed to access fathers NI today on the gov UK portal, can see 4 full years. He was self employed if that makes a difference? Also for 1975 , when he moved to the UK, it says full NI allocated but they don't count that so he only has 5 years from 1975 to 1980. I got the original dates wrong in my first post there. He was born in May 1951. Not sure it will be worth his while but we have applied now. Thanks

@Isabel S ,
Unfortunately i advised you incorrectly - my sincere apologies.
See the reply to this Gov.UK thread from HMRC Admin 8.
https://community.hmrc.gov.uk/customerforums/ni/95f26221-f52b-ee11-a81c-000d3a8751e3

The 3 free years are only available for people who turned 16 between 1975 and 2010 (people born 1959 - 1994)
As your father was born in 1951, he turned sixteen in 1967 and does not qualify.
Also as he was born after 6th April 1951, he can only qualify for the New State Pension and will need a min of 10 years

If the application comes back as Class 2, it may still be worthwhile, but you need to take his health into account, calculate investment return etc

Again my apologies for advising you incorrectly in earlier post

Thanks @Giggs11 for the clarification. Would be in a lucky position if we are put into class 2. Appreciate you taking time out to reply.

Definitely worth doing if you can. You recoup your money in about 2.5 years with class 3 and about 7 months for class 2 contributions. Unless you think you will die within that period after the state pension age?

It's for my Dad, he's already 73. In v good health, touch wood. Still might be worth it to pay the voluntary contributions.

Have form sent in online, guess just wait at this stage ?