For those who have spent all or most of our lives as self employed, the State Pension may not have been uppermost in our thinking as we made plans for our retirement.

Indeed, it’s more than possible that other priorities have prevailed in some years and contributions have been missed.

But the new State Pension could represent a helpful amount to many people’s budgets – indeed a sizeable contribution if you are looking to keep some of your assets tied up or gaining in capital value for the first few years. It’s also one income you can be certain of receiving should any of your other investments suffer along the way.

Certainly when you are keying in your income for future years, it helps to have an accurate assessment of what you can expect to receive.

You need 10 years of contributions to qualify for the new State Pension, and 35 to receive the full amount (currently estimated at £151.26 when it cuts in next year, although it should rise slightly from there).

That amount will go up each year automatically in line with the triple lock pledge made by this and the previous Government. As that means a minimum of price inflation, earnings growth or 2.5% – whichever is the greater – you may well find yourself doing rather better than many of the working population in terms of annual rises.

To receive a forecast of your State Pension(s) you can either a) Call the DSS pension-forecast service on 0845 300 0168 (ensure you have your National Insurance number to hand) OR use the online State Pension Profiling Service  (https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre) .

So is it worth topping up if you don’t have enough contributions to give you a full State Pension? The nearer to retirement, the more expensive it becomes: an extra £25 pw costs £22,500 for a male aged 65, for instance. That makes it better to pay voluntary NIC contributions as you go now rather than wait, and in annuity terms it actually represents a return of 5.8%.

Also remember that – if you do elect to defer receiving your State Pension, you will be rewarded with a lump sum or an increase in pension for the rest of your life… again worth considering if you don’t need the money immediately and/or fancy your chances of living longer than average! More information on that is available here: https://www.gov.uk/deferring-state-pension/what-you-may-get

Oh, and yes… the State Pension does contribute towards your income when income tax is applied…