because went to university have lost out on my part of

building

my pension. what can i do? back in the 80s was at uni and went to french university. i did not know at the time that even if you are at uni you still need to pay NI in order not to lose out at the pension stage. i did 5 years at uni. my parents did not know and still probably dont today know about this so they would not have told me about it (actually i know a lot of people who dont know!) and i never got any paperwork from the Pensions depart. is there anything i can do to pay up those missed years. i was still a uk resident. i have looked into the french option but this does not seem viable. thanks in advance.
p.s i do know of instance in other areas where they were told it was impossible for example to back dated for example tax credits for the years they did not know about (and not the standard 3 months that is written on their paperwork) and 2 people have told me they appealed and they got it! so there must be somethign on this front too. any help appreciated.

CIS

Is too far back to pay , the earliest you can pay for now is around about 1998.

No appeal will work (I was a state pension advisor for 3 years with the pension service)

You have 5 years leeway in your working life (16-65), out of 49 yaers , you only 44 for a full state pension.

Contact State Pension forecasting and get a state pension forecast, 0845 3000168, or online at https://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk.

It'll give you an idea of what pension you have now and what you can achieve, as wella slisting any years you can backpay class 3 for.

building

because these were university years? thanks in advance.

CIS wrote:

Is too far back to pay , the earliest you can pay for now is around about 1998.

No appeal will work (I was a state pension advisor for 3 years with the pension service)

You have 5 years leeway in your working life (16-65), out of 49 yaers , you only 44 for a full state pension.

Contact State Pension forecasting and get a state pension forecast, 0845 3000168, or online at https://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk.

It'll give you an idea of what pension you have now and what you can achieve, as wella slisting any years you can backpay class 3 for.

CIS

They apply the rules for any years , not just those at university.

As far as HMRC are concerned , you could have been doing anything, they still wont change the rules to allow people to backpay that far.

It was as much of a concession as they'll give to allow people extra years to pay when they stopped sending out defiency notices, even that backdating was limited timewise.

exil

As has been said, the 5 years is equal to the "free years" you get anyway. Even if
you lose another year, the effect is to lose about 1/40 of your pension per year lost, worth about £2 a week, so no need to panic unduly. You can easily build up an equivalent in other pension arrangements.