no record of army NI contributions

TerryJay

Does anyone know where I can go for help with this? Recent State Pension forecast shows I won't have enough NI contributions for a full pension (will have 25 yrs by Oct 2010 and need 30yrs). I asked HM Revenue & Customs for list of all NI contributions. There's no record of my army service, so am missing 8 years. My Statement of Army Service shows I was in the army from Jul 68 - Jul 72 and Aug 73 - Jul 77 (total of 8 years). The NI contribution record shows zero for these years.
When I phoned HM Revenue they told me to contact the MOD and they would sort it out. I phoned various depts in the MOD, was told they don't have records for that far back and was told to contact HM Revenue. So am going round in circles. Any advice would be gratefully received.

anmarj

the basic state pension only kicked in April 1975, any conts paid before this date would come under graduated retirement benefit. So part of your "missing years" may come under Graduated retirement benefit which is not as much as the basic state pension which was why it was changed. If you happen to have any p60's then you could send that to the contruibtuion agency to show that you paid NI and they would then update their records.

tocsin

Something that would definitely help would be payslips or P60s from the time - unlikely I know, but those would be a clincher.

Do you have anything from the Army days with your NI Number shown? If not, ask the MoD for their record of your NINo. It is unlikely that Her Majesty's Armed Forces were a spiv employer holding back NI contributions, so the more likely thing is that the NI number they held was wrong and the contributions are sitting unreconciled with your proper NI account.

(anmarj - from the description by the OP he is short of basic NI contributions for the years in question, so grad/SERPS is another issue?)

DiggerUK

TerryJay,
You could also ask on the Armed Forces Thread.
It may give a heads up to those serving, of something to watch out for as well.

theartfullodger

I had a 2-year period when I was working for a company and no NI contributions were reported by HMRC. Turned out there was one digit wrong in the NI number they were using-
a) Could have been my mistake, could have been theirs..
b) Dunno 'bout you but the only thing I look at on payslips is the net amount, bottom right, never ever checked the details..
- took about 9 months to sort it by HMRC did most of the stuff (thanks guys!) - I still had my payslips, income tax returns etc,...

Maybe get Army to confirm you were with them & send that on the HMRC. Also ask Army wot NI number they used... if their records go back that far...

Cheers & Good luck in retirement!

Lodger

anmarj

[(anmarj - from the description by the OP he is short of basic NI contributions for the years in question, so grad/SERPS is another issue?)[/QUOTE]


which is why any conts paid prior to 1975 will not count towards his basic state pension as the rules prior this were different.

Graduated Retirement Benefit
Graduated Retirement Benefit is based on the amount of graduated National
Insurance contributions paid in the tax years when the Graduated Retirement
Benefit scheme existed (between April 1961 and April 1975).
[SSCBA 1992 section 62; SS Pensions Act 1975]
People will qualify for Graduated Retirement Benefit if they:
• were employees;
• were aged 18 or over during any part of this period; and
• paid graduated National Insurance contributions.
People paid graduated contributions if they were employees and their gross weekly
earnings were more than £9. Until October 1966, people in contracted-out
employment did not pay graduated contributions, but from that date they were
required to pay them, although at a lower rate than those who were not contractedout.
People aged under 18, the self-employed, women aged 65 or over (or over 60
and getting their State Pension) and men aged 70 and over (or 65 and over and
getting their State Pension) were outside the Graduated Retirement Benefit scheme.
Graduated Retirement Benefit is worked out on the number of units of graduated
contributions paid and the value of the unit at the time the person claims their
State Pension.
A person may be paid Graduated Retirement Benefit even if they do not qualify
for any State Pension.


Baisc state pension came into effect from 1975, and he is missing years but only the years from 1975 will count towards his basic pension, but would get something for ther period before but not much, so he would still be missing some years. He should be speaking to the Contribuitions agency to see what other years are missing.

I agree with others that the wrong NI could of been quoted either to the Army by the poster or Army quoting wrong NI.

EdInvestor

anmarj wrote: »

Baisc state pension came into effect from 1975, and he is missing years but only the years from 1975 will count towards his basic pension, but would get something for ther period before but not much, so he would still be missing some years. He should be speaking to the Contribuitions agency to see what other years are missing.

The BSP has been around for 100 years.IIRC what happened in 1975 was that a new records computer came in, so that for years before then, they count in a more simplistic way. But it certainly isn't the case that NI years before 1975 don't count.

Have a talk to the Pension Service to see what your record actually says.

https://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk

Joe_Bloggs

I was issued with a messed up National Insurance number by my present employer. It was just a typographical mistake that anyone could make. I accepted the mistake on my P60s as HMRC did not complain and these forms are supposed to be the facts.

I did not realise the implications until 16 years later when I requested a statement of tax coding. There were lots of problems and identity issues that had to be solved. I had memorised my National Insurance number from when I got it. There was a lot of symmetry and repetition in the number, so it was easy.

I had many forms including an invoice for an old tax rebate that included my 'original' national insurance number and my name. My course of action was sorted out with expert advice from this forum. I eventually had take my papers to a meeting with an empowered individual/civil servant who could look at my case.

They decided that I was who I was and that my original National Insurance number should be used again. The weird thing was when I asked the name of the civil servant who was helping they admitted/mentioned that they had the same surname as me. I did not close my jaw until I had left the building.

J_B.
Strange things happen. If we work together then things can be sorted out.

ALIBOBSY

I used to work for the pensions agency and they can request a microfische copy of the records prior to computerisation, but sometimes these requests came back as not traced. Supposedly all the old NI cards were microfisched but they seemed to have trouble finding some. It also takes ageeeeesss to trace and costs alot (used to be £50 a request off our budget) so they may not be keen to do it.
They should be able to try a trace and see what comes back. Are there any other years missing or short of conts, you may be able to pay to make some more recent years into qualifying years. Or it may be easier to clarify a more recent issue. I had one case where I managed to find an old paper record in the incapacity benefit file which showed some old conts which were due but not inputed.
Mind you this was going the extra mile, and certainly not something most staff would know about. I worked there for so long I did most benefits (was the DHSS when I started lol).
Mind I suspect the old files have all gone now as they were starting to weed them out whilst I was there.

good luck

ali x