On a semi-related topic, would absolutely IMPLORE anyone who has worked for a number of major employers in the past to use this free government pension tracing service to check if you have a pension running that you may have forgotten about or be completely unaware of (if it was a non-contributory pension).
I worked for a major publishing company in the early 80's. Moved homes and jobs several times and just forgot it was ever running. turns out it worth several £K a year or a bumper bundle in transfer value.
Nagged an Aussie mate who worked for a couple of years for BT, also in the early 80's to use that link to see if he had a long forgotten pension also. He was pretty gobsmacked and over the moon to discover he had. OK, was a pretty measly annuity, but magically turns into a very decent lump sum of £30K when he's gone through the fairly straightforward process of claiming it.
You will need at leat 10 years of NI contributions to get any state pension, and a minimum of 30 years contributions to get a full pension. They don't have to be concecutive years.
Plus you can apply for pension credits if you are below a certain level.
By actually signing on your NIC Credits get paid for you. Well not exactly paid for you but they do get credited while you sign on. That's why you should always sign on if you have periods out of work
