Voluntary national insurance

[dinello]

Not sure if this is the right topic, so apologies if not.

However, I've been living and working abroad since 2014, and will be moving back to the U.K. this year.

I'd like to pay some voluntary national insurance, and I wonder if there's anyone who's done this who could give me some tips?

Such as: how do I go about it? Can I do this online? Etc.

if you go to the HMRC website and register there (you will need your NI number and other id) you will be able to see your NI contribution history and if there are gaps (which there will be in your case) there is a simple link to click to pay extra.

Thank you!

dinello Male sure you are on the official site - gov.uk not a scam site!

If you've only been outside the UK for the last 5/6 years and have previously contributed or expect to contribute in the future, you might not need to pay any extra.

You need 35 years of contributions for a full state pension, so can afford to miss a few years without affecting your pension entitlement as most people have 45-50 years between leaving education and state pension age in which to make the 35 years of contributions. Plus you get credits if you are in receipt of certain qualifying benefits, including child benefit for any time that you spend as a SAHP of a child under 12.

Hi OP

Tha basics that I understand are

You need 10 years miinimum of full contributions to qualify for any state pension
You need 35 years of full contributions to qualify for the full state pension - currently about 168GBP per week.

You can backdate contributions for missing years, for up to the previous 6 years (I think)> It costs about 760GBP per year.

AS above, if you get onto the HMRC site there is a very useful summary of your current situation. I'm abroad too, and have several friends in the same situation. You can also call the HMRC pensions advisers - I've been told they are very helpful and will hep sort out voluntary contributions etc,

If you don't qualify for full state pension when you retire, don't the Govt give you a top up?

PapreeeekaPringle - Yes, in fact even if you do qualify for full state pension chances are you'll also be entitled to pension tax credits on top as long as you've chosen to not be prudent and accrue savings or a private pension and instead just spaffed all your money away

Another example of the stupidly overly generous benefits system, rewarding the feckless and irresponsible whilst the people who genuinely are most in need of benefits are the ones who struggle the hardest to claim them.

Thanks for all this info everyone! Very helpful!