Inland Revenue vague answer:

THENOX

Hello,

I know that the question might sound really obvious therefore dumb but given the mess in IR :eek: it seems worth a quick confirmation:

I've been contacted by IR regarding shortfall in National Contributions payments for 06/07 (towards State Pension). I've arranged the transfer of relevant sum and after about a week got the letter stating:

"We wrote to you previously to tell you that it appeared that you hadn't paid or been credited with enough National Insurance contributions for the tax year 06/07 to count towards your State Pension.

I am pleased to tell you that your record has been up-dated and now shows that there is no shortfall for the tax year 06/07. This means that you have enough contributions for that year to count towards your basic State Pension."

-It really sounds like they've made a mistake previously, now " got it updated" and inform about "new" state or is it a standard note that they write to confirm that they've received a payment just using vague language to confuse poor tax-payer..? :mad:

Anyone got the same kind of notice?

THX,


THE NOX

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Dirty Estimate...

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Shelle

Dont worry about it.

Loads of people received that letter, me included. Quite simply, National Insurance details from some 2006-07 employer returns are still in the process of being recorded on individual accounts. When your National Insurance contributions are recorded on your account HMRC, dependant on the earnings and NI recorded, will issue a letter to tell you that the 2006-07 tax year is now a qualifying year for benefit purposes. Hence why you got that letter.

As I knew I couldnt possibly be short in my contributions due to being fully employed, I wrote to them with a copy of my P60, and about 2 months later I received another letter to tell me I was no longer short!

So, you were not short in the first place, and you now have a letter confirming that!

Hope that makes sense!

What I cant explain is why they are so behind in updating their records, and why they send the first letter out when they know they havent updated their records!!!!

seven-day-weekend

I'd give them a ring and see if you need to pay any or not.

I would imagine that it is an 'update' rather than telling you they have received your payment.

THENOX

Thanks for an answer which kind of supports my worries as I've paid what they've requested in the first letter (after reading Martins article urging to pay now before NI class III contrib 50% rise).

Should I write to them requesting a refund then? How can I be sure that their update is not a result of my payment?

THENOX

I've already paid after reading about class III 50% rise.

seven-day-weekend

I would ring them and speak to someone to clarify matters. If there is an overpayment, there should be no problem getting a refund. I had one a few years ago, it took a few weeks to come through.