If you go to the Government's website https://www.gov.uk/state-pension/eligibility
it clearly states that if you have 30 qualifying years you will be eligible for a full state pension. There is no qualification to this, so many reading that would assume that if they have those years to their credit, all is well.
But the Government is committed to a single tier state pension to be introduced for those who become pensionable after 6th Aporil 2016. And if that is introduced the small print makes clear that you will need 35 qualifying years to get the full pension.
And no mention of how to bridge that gap on their site.
And all HMRC's site states is that: "Until these changes are implemented in 2016, it will be more difficult for you to decide whether paying for any gaps in your record will improve your future State Pension."
It seems that a lot of people will be thrown into confusion at best, and financial hardship at worst, as a result of this unpublicised change. The very least the Government's website could do, surely, is to put a warning on the current data that a significant change may be about to cause hardship for which pensioners should be warned.