Actually once you are back in your home country (or in fact any other country) you can pay an optional £180/year to buy a full qualifying year.

Anybody who ever worked in the UK can do it and you don’t need to have ever been a citizen.

There are adverts on Irish radio about it quite often.

It’s an absolutely terrible deal for the British government when you consider how high the state pension annual payout is.

I live in another country right now and I do it myself!

A minimum amount of 10 years is needed to get the basic pension (which is proportional to years worked), but years on Universal Credit (benefits) count towards this. Also, anyone who is of pension age is entitled to a Pension Credit top-up to a weekly income of £227.10.

>Also, anyone who is of pension age is entitled to a Pension Credit top-up to a weekly income of £227.10.

As long as you have less than £8,000 in the bank.