Missing NI years - but I have worked!

[stillnor]

AIBU to think that the HMRC had some kind of data loss?

I worked in several part-time jobs as a student over 5 years... yet my NI credit suggests very little was paid to me! I didn't work cash in hand and I worked for different agencies on different parts of the country.

This is too many years ago to check via a bank statement. But I can recall specific roles pretty easily.

How on earth do I prove this? I keep no records as I hate paper.

Given the above I am convinced that 4 different temping agencies and a few other employers can't all have stuffed up their payment records?

Has anyone else had this?

I'm concerned that I'll have to work for longer in order to claim the (potentially fictional of course) state pension in the future?

The first step is to get more info on exactly what employments they have for you. You can do that here:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-employment-history-request

If records are missing you'd need proof that you worked for the employers in question. Without P60s, statements etc the only way of doing this would be to contact the employers asking them for written statements of earnings with dates, assuming they still exist and have kept the payroll info.

Thanks that's helpful TreeTop.

I'm certain that 2 of these companies still exist, but I'm talking 20 years ago... so I'm really not sure if there's much I can do.

You have to earn over a certain amount to pay NIC. I don't know what the levels were then, but it's possible if they were all part time that you didn't earn enough in each job to pay any.

You should be able to pay some to make up any gaps but it won't be cheap.

TreeTop - i see that you think the onus may be on me to prove this work, but it seems so unlikely that all these different jobs didn't file my returns correctly!

I think I earned about £6k...

I have checked the amount the HMRC think I earned for those missing years and the amount is tiny! Between £-200 for the whole year! So definitely something is wrong or missing,

Each job is reported separately so if each one was below the level where you paid NIC then you wouldn't have paid any. That's all I can think of.

If HNRC have a history of your income you will be able to see what you earned in each job, but businesses only have to keep records for six years so unlikely they would still have details that far back.

www.taxhistory.co.uk/National%20Insurance%20rates.htm

Historic info showing lower earnings limits

Thanks pink