Do self-employed people get a State Pension?

How the State Pension works when you are self-employed

There is no separate pension for the self-employed. The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week, and what you get depends on the qualifying years on your National Insurance record. You normally need 35 for the full rate and at least 10 to get anything. People whose record started before April 2016 may have a different starting amount, which is why checking your own forecast matters.

A qualifying year can come from working and paying National Insurance, from National Insurance credits, or from voluntary contributions. Years spent employed and years self-employed count in exactly the same way.

The new State Pension is paid on your own record. For most people reaching State Pension age now, you cannot build it from a husband's or civil partner's record, which makes any gaps in your own years more important to spot.

What is Class 2 National Insurance?

Class 2 is the self-employed contribution that counts towards the State Pension. Since 6 April 2024 no one has to pay it.

• If your profits are £7,105 or more a year, Class 2 is treated as paid. You get the qualifying year without paying anything.
• If your profits are below £7,105, you can choose to pay it voluntarily at £3.65 a week in 2026/27 to protect your record.

That voluntary option is one of the cheapest ways to buy a qualifying year. GOV.UK says you can pay Class 2 or Class 3 if you are self-employed with profits under £7,105, including if your gross income is £1,000 or less.

What does Class 4 National Insurance cover?

Class 4 is charged on profits above £12,570 a year. For 2026/27 the rate is 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% on anything above £50,270.

It does not buy you anything towards the State Pension. GOV.UK is explicit that Class 4 contributions "do not count towards state benefits or pensions". In practice it works like an extra income tax on profits. Your State Pension years come from Class 2 being treated as paid, or paid voluntarily, rather than from Class 4.

How to check your National Insurance record and fill gaps

1. Sign in to check your National Insurance record. It shows each year, any gaps, and whether paying for a gap would increase your pension.
2. Get your State Pension forecast, which shows what you are on course for and when you can claim.
3. Look for missing years. Common reasons are low-profit early years in a business, time out caring, or years abroad.
4. Check whether credits could fill a year before paying. If you are registered for Child Benefit for a child under 12, you get Class 3 credits automatically, even if you do not receive the payments.
5. If you do pay, you can usually go back only 6 years, with the deadline on 5 April each year. Gaps from 2025/26 can be filled until 5 April 2032.

Class 3 costs £18.40 a week in 2026/27, about five times the voluntary Class 2 rate, so it is worth checking which class you are entitled to pay. Not every gap is worth filling. The online service shows whether a particular year would actually add to your pension.

Is the State Pension enough on its own?

For most people it is not. £241.30 a week is a little over £12,500 a year, and many self-employed women have no workplace pension building up alongside it because there is no employer to set one up.

The usual options are a personal pension or a self-invested personal pension (SIPP). With relief at source, the provider claims basic rate tax relief of 20% and adds it to your pot. Higher and additional rate taxpayers claim the rest through Self Assessment. Tax relief is limited to contributions of up to 100% of your earnings in the year, and the annual allowance of £60,000 caps total pension saving before tax charges apply. Unused allowance from the previous three tax years can sometimes be carried forward, which helps if your profits are uneven.

Some directors of their own limited company pay into a pension through the company instead. Which route suits you depends on how you trade and what you can afford, and a regulated adviser can compare them.

National Insurance and State Pension figures, 2026/27

Source: GOV.UK: self-employed National Insurance rates

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