Martin Lewis fan shares how money tip helped turn £31 payment into 'thousands'

The Martin Lewis Money Show returned to ITV last week for its Summer Special

One woman shared how one Martin Lewis tip helped her turn a £31 payment into "thousands".

On the latest episode of the Martin Lewis Money Show, Martin highlighted the importance of checking your National Insurance record and plugging in any gaps you may have. Gaps in your National Insurance record could potentially affect your state pension payments as if you don't have enough years of contributions you may not get the full amount.

The full new state pension - which is claimed by anyone who reached state pension age before April 6, 2016 - is currently worth £221.20 a week. If you do not have 35 years of National Insurance Contributions (NICs) then you will get less and you need 10 years to get anything at all. Martin has spoken out about this many times before and has urged people to check their records and pay for years to plug in any gaps.

A Money Show viewer, Paula, wrote into last week’s Summer Special after following Martin's lucrative tip to share her success. Paula said: “We watched your pension special and then checked and found out a £31 payment would get us an extra year of pension worth thousands.”

Have you plugged gaps in your National Insurance record to boost your state pension? Let us know: [email protected]

The Money Saving Expert (MSE) website founder then explained to viewers how the trick worked, saying: “So £31 would be a part-year payment. Each extra year of pension is worth £300 a year. If she lives 60 years into a pension, £31 would turn into £6,000 inflation-proof.” Martin describes voluntary National Insurance contributions as “the biggest, single, possible money gain you can make” for people aged between 45 and 70. He added: “It’s worth a fortune for lots of people.”

You can check your National Insurance record and state pension forecast on the GOV.UK website and this will show you if you need to plug any gaps. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has recently launched a new online tool which allows you to buy National Insurance years your record online. A top-up for a missed qualifying year currently costs £824.

However, before you make any voluntary National Insurance payments, you should first check if you can plug the gaps in your record for free. You can do this by claiming National Insurance credits, these plug in the gaps for the times when you were not working or not earning enough to pay National Insurance.