Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in each constituency have incomplete national insurance records for their pension because they have omitted to pay the contributions in past contributory years.

Although the Government holds data on National Insurance records, it is based on a 1 per cent sample of the National Insurance and PAYE System (NPS) which is not sufficient to provide data at a constituency level. So the specific information requested is not available.

It is worth noting that over the course of someone’s working life it is possible to have some gaps in their National Insurance record and still get the full amount of State Pension. For example, in the case of the new State Pension, if we assume around a 50 year working life, this allows for roughly 15 years of gaps.