National insurance contributions.

[BusterGonad]

Hello. I'm looking to make voluntary NI contributions as I'm living abroad. I have been for 4 or 5 years. I've previously filled the form out and sent it off. They did not return the form (maybe it got lost in the post) and the direct debit didn't get set up, I know they received my forms as a friend posted them in the UK and my details were correct up to date online. I have no idea what happened and why the direct debit didn't go ahead. Can anyone help as I'm unsure if I ticked the right box. Do I want to pay NI class 2 or class 3? Maybe this is why it got rejected? I just wish I could do this all online as posting from thousands of miles away amd waiting for a letter which may not even arrive is ridiculous. Does anyone know of a way to get my missed payments bill sent online?

Not if you live overseas.

Ha. Yes. I wonder if that's what happened last time 😬 but rereading the info Class 2 seems correct.

Anyway I have a headache now and need to pick my son up from school. I'll rethink it all tomorrow. Hopefully by then I'll get some more help on here. 😊😊😊

I'm so glad for this thread as I've been abroad now for 4.5 years and I checked out my pension valuation here and it's pretty much nothing so I desperately need to ensure I maintain my state pension at home- even though I may never live in the UK again. I'm 50 so that's a lot of years to lose.

To add I spoke to put company accountant in London and he told me I need to pay class 2.

That's good news. So you are working and are about to start paying, and you're eligible for class 2. That's reassuring. Thank you.

I mean about to start paying after 4.5 years of not paying.

I am mid 40s with two years of incomplete payments - 99/20 and 20/21. Am I allowed to pay for years that far back as the Martin Lewis site talked about going back as far as 2006?

@firstworldprob Yes. The first step is to sign in (set up) a government gateway account.
www.gov.uk/check-state-pension
Then check your NI record and the two years you refer to should show as incomplete.
You will then be told to contact the future pensions team to see if you will benefit from paying voluntary contributions.

Many thanks @Americansmoothy but I wonder if I’m wasting my time if I am not allowed to pay for years before 2006 when my shortfall occurred?

Sorry I misread I thought you meant 2020/2021.

Personally I check mine every year as it’s much easier to pick up errors and get them corrected at the time.

if you check your record it will show which years you can pay for.

At the moment you can (if you are able to get through) pay for years from 2016-17 onwards. I called today and the recorded message now says to hang up unless you want to pay for that year, as it's the one that will not be available after early April 2023.

Does this mean that you can’t pay to catch up for earlier shortfalls than 2016?

Sorry yes I just went to double check the gov.uk page and it does indeed say that if you’re a man born after 5 April 1951 or a woman born after 5 April 1953
you have until 5 April 2023 to pay voluntary contributions to make up for gaps between tax years April 2006 and April 2016 if you’re eligible. I wonder if I wasn't listening closely and it said tax years up to 2016-17, rather than referring specifically to that tax year. As I want to buy 2017-18, I hung up at that point and I'll call back in April.

I've been trying to get through for a few weeks now to get the mystical/ mythical number to pay up my 2016 contributions. It's ridiculous you can't do it on-l ine. The message keeps repeating "did you know you can look on-line" etc etc. Yes, I bloody know and then it tells me to ring you, you ridiculous automated machine. Grrrrrr.

It is crazy that you can't. Especially for the overseas people as usually the postal services etc are shit abroad. It feels so old fashioned to be filling out a paper form and awning it off.

*sending

I have been abroad for several years and looked into this after being here for a few years. You do need your government gateway login and then you can check how many years you have contributed and how many you haven’t. Also you can check what your forecasted state pension will be. Due to the adjusted retirement age, the number of years to take you to full retirement state pension amount will vary.
When I queried with HMRC how many years I could pay (completing CF83 form), in UK tax year 19/20, I was informed I could pay the previous 7 tax years Class 3 NIC, so TY 12-13 to 18-19.
They provided a date I could pay the amount by without penalty and a later date, when penalties would apply. 6 of the 7 years the without penalty date was the end of the current tax year that I raised the question in. Eg, 18-19 TY amount of 761.80, could be paid without penalty by April ‘21, but final date with penalties April ‘25.

I chose to pay annually as it is easier for me. But I pay from a UK bank account to their bank account. But they also provide details if paying from an overseas bank account.
The reference number to attach to the payment is in the format your NI number followed by IC, your surname then your initial.
Eg. If your name is Annie Jones, you would write the reference as QQ123456AICJONESA

These were the amounts I paid:
Class 3 for TY 15-16 is 780 (without penalties)
Class 3 for TY 16-17 is 780 (without penalties)
Class 3 for TY 17-18 is 741 (without penalties)
Class 3 for TY 18-19 is 761.80 (without penalties)
Class 3 for TY 19-20 is 780 (without penalties)
Class 3 for TY 20-21 is 795.60 (without penalties)
Class 3 for TY 21-22 is 800.80 (without penalties)

The last 2 years it has taken about 8-9 months after payment for it to be showing on my gateway account as paid, thus increasing my state pension forecast. I hope this helps.

@Flippingheckfire and are you know buying class 2?

I am overseas and pay the Class 2 voluntary NICS which is ~£150 a year.

I filled the form and got approval back but the money wasn't taken for a couple of years so I rang the helpline and got it sorted. Then it's just a matter of keeping an eye on your account and checking the years are being credited.

If you need to call them use VOIP (Vyke, Skype..) as this means the calls are much cheaper if you are kept on hold for long times.

@BusterGonad First of all if you are looking to back pay the last 4-5 years there's no panic. The looming deadline of the end of this tax year is important for anyone wanting to back pay up to 2006. After the start of the next tax year you can only go back 6 years.

We have a Gateway account, forms received by HMRC in late Nov with an expected date of completion mid Dec and 2 months later we are still waiting.

If you have a Gateway account you can also nominate to receive info by email so any update will come to you that way.

Class 2 is for people working overseas who were working up to the time they left the UK. Class 3 for anyone not working overseas.

A full record is now 35 years but for anyone who didn't opt out of SERPS it isn't 35 years it's less, depending on how much you earned when not opted out of SERPS so given that people are likely to work for 50 years there are years you don't need to catch up on and deciding to voluntarily pay depends on age, existing contributions and what age you think you might retire. For class 2 it is a bit of a no brainer because it's very cheap but for Class 3 I think you need to look carefully at if it's worth contributing now or if you hold off until later. Are you likely to return to the UK and work?

The form you filled out was to start paying with a box to tick if you wanted to back pay. If you don't have anyway of knowing the firm was definitely received I would persevere with calling to check. If you resend the form it will just go to the bottom of the pile.

The form was definitely received as the gateway had the updated address on but no direct debit was set up. I will resend the form but include a covering letter outlining everything because maybe I filled it out incorrectly. For the direct debit mandate I only put husbands details but it's a joint account. Maybe that was the issue. I'm just baffled as the form is hardly rocket science. We left uk in August 2018, so on the form do i put that as leaving date even though my husbands current employment started in August 2022. Shall I just add an additional page stating all emoyment since leaving the UK? Obviously the letter explaining why the direct debt wasn't set up got lost in South East Asia somewhere but now I'm going to use my sisters address as contact address. Where in the Gateway can you opt for emails. I looked and couldn't find this.

@TheTeenageYears yes, I have until 2027 to pay back the starting years we owe. I will be setting up a direct debit for me to pay class 3 as I dont work. A bit expensive but I feel its worth it and we have no plans to return to the UK as yet.

@BusterGonad I'm away at the moment and don't have our Mr Gateway log in info with me to be able to have a look. When I can do that I will but it won't be for a week unfortunately. It's worth calling using Skype - a friend got through really quickly and they were helpful.

@TheTeenageYears just to add, my husband is 46, he's paid for 21 years. We have 5 years of back payment to pay. Is it worth it do you think?