Urgent warning to anyone those age 45 + re: National Insurance & state pension

[lechatnoir]

Apologies if this has already been posted but the deadline to plug any NI contribution gaps is closing on 5th April and gaps in contributions could have a significant impact on your state pension so well worth looking at.
It may require you to pay for top-up (apparently not always but not applicable to me) but I was shocked to find I had gaps of a few years even though was employed & paying tax & NI!

Details & instructions on here: www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/

60 mins......

Wow ..... At one hour and 15 minutes they cut you off! Sorry we haven't been able to answer your call, goodbye. Arrrrgggghhhhh.

Bchagall · Yesterday 22:00
Creamcakeandrhinos · Yesterday 19:52
I have 44 years of NI contributions but still won’t get the full pension. I will have to pay another £4000 to £5000 voluntary until I do
Why is this the case? I have 39 years of contributions and already qualify without paying extra. I'll be working for another 10 years so will have nearly 50 years by the time I retire but I've already paid enough

just looked on gateway I was contracted out so this must be the reason I guess

I've just tried all 3 options to do with pension forecasts on 08007310175 (future 'help'line) & they ALL cut out immediately.

I actually need to do this as I need to claim my pension. The govt should've thought this through & told people in different age bands to do it in different stages, i.e. me first 😁.

• I am assuming that if I don't do this by April it will be too late to pay.

When do you qualify for a state pension? If it’s more than two years away, there’s no hurry.*

Not until I'm 67 (I'm 52) but I am retired already so no more work contributions and I'm two years off full pension, so I need to pay those in myself as youngest has turned 12 so no more stamps for him. I had thought they were scrapping the option of paying gaps and had to pay both forthcoming years by April but a PP said the window was only closing for one particular year. In any case it turns out you can't pay in advance. I do think the information is confusing. No wonder the phone lines are jammed!

I had thought they were scrapping the option of paying gaps and had to pay both forthcoming years by April

A lot of panic seems to have been created based on this misconception.

This has now been extended to July by the government.

MSE website today states:

The deadline to top up missing national insurance years between 2006 and 2016 has been extended to 31 July 2023, while the price of doing so will be frozen at current costs during this period. The moves come after many people reported being unable to access essential Government helplines to get vital information ahead of the previous 5 April deadline.

I'm still trying to get my pension! The number of times I've been told I have the wrong department, even when I've been given that number by an official... the time I've spent on the phone listening to their bloody awful muzak (current call wait 50+ minutes)... the conflicting information... the info they put on recorded messages but don't tell you in person...

And don't get me started on the (sometimes almost daily) emails from HMRC about things which are useless to me, but not about the one thing which apparently I should've done at some time in the past, which would've reduced the cost of the NICs I've just paid to make up. Plus hiding the NIC payment option in recent years, if you do self assessment.

Is this an accidental result of successive Tory governements' austerity measures, or is it a deliberate policy to make claiming a pension as long-winded as possible while taking as much money off punters as possible for NICs?

How on earth do you actually manage to speak to these people!! I’ve tried all different times of the day and just get cut off. I JUST WANT TO PAY!!!!!!

Worth noting that if you earn over £123 a week you won’t pay NI but you will get NI credits. So £6500 a year or so

I called 0300 200 3500. The first time, I was on hold for almost an hour. I had to call again for something else. I rang at 8 am exactly and was on hold for about 30 seconds.

Anyone have any info on how things work if you are PT?

I have a disabled DC and not sure if I'll ever be able to go back to FT.

@Crunchymum if your disabled child gets DLA or PIP, apply for apply for carer’s allowance. Even if you earn too much to get it, you’ll continue to get NI credits as a carer.

I do earn too much to get carers allowance, hence not bothering to do so.

So it's just the application that is important?

@ifIwerenotanandroid thanks for bumping the thread again. I read it in Feb then forgot about it, I thought I was too late, but seemingly not. I'll put it on my 'to do' list for next week!!

Good luck @WinterMusings !

@Unprecedentedusername Yes, 0300 200 3500 for HMRC to get a payment reference number. Once you've paid, you can ring that number or check online (I didn't know that until it was too late today), to check they've got the payment. I didn't realise they update the NIC record online.

@Crunchymum I believe so. My DS got DLA and I was still getting NI credits despite earning too much. I did get carer’s allowance for a couple of years though.

https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/disabled-people-and-carers/caring-someone/pension-and-national-insurance-carers#:~:text=The%20main%20benefit%20available%20to,a%20qualifying%20year%20that%20year.

More info here. Looks like it’s called carer’s credit and you have to apply for it.

Not sure if anyone has answered this already but I have two extra years credited for when I was at college aged 16-18. I think that was only done for a few years so you would have to be around 40 for that to be possible!

Please do double check any credits you pay voluntarily are actually added to your account. I paid 2 years on separate 13 digit codes some months back , all details correct , one year was credited , the other they lost . It’s now been traced by them but will take another up to 8 weeks for them to actually credit my account .