Payment of missed NI Contributions

annie02blue

A couple of years ago my husband got sent a letter from the Inland Revenue about some missed NI Contributions from when he spent a year in Australia travelling. Basically the letter stated that he could pay £240 odd pounds to keep his state pension contributions protected but that this was purely voluntary.

We received this letter a while ago and the deadline to make a payment is April of this year. My husband is not sure what to do and whether it is worth his making this payment. He has just turned 30 and has a private pension and is in full time employment and has been for all of his working life other than when he spent a year travelling. Do you think it is worth making the payment or should we just ignore it?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Niggles

In the past men had to have 44 qualifying years of NI contributions to achieve full state pension. This could be quite hard to achieve so paying for missing years was often sensible.
As of April you only need 30 years of NI contributions to qualify for a full state pension. So if you are 30 and already have a number of qualifying years already in the bag you have lots of time to get to the 30 years for full SP. Therefore most likely not worth buying the missing year.
If however you plan to travel or live abroad a great deal in the future then maximising your years now could be worthwhile.

annie02blue

Thank you so much for that response. A great help to aid us making our decision! :beer: