Shortfall in National Insurance Contributions

sharnad

dweep wrote: »

dweep back again, having problems completing the previous unfinished post ..please read on.....

....I want to go on paying NIC's towards my pension.....

In regard to this, the HMRC site advise that "You need to earn a minmum of £87 per week and £4524 per year in 2007-2008 for it to count as a qualifying year"

As I will not be employed every week of the year, I will miss the first qualifying criteria of earning £87 per week, but do I qualify by earning the annual amount, even though I will only be working about 5 months of the year ?

I obviously will not be signing on as unemployed during the other 7 months as it is my choice not to work.

If you earn the yearly lel then the earnings will be there to qualify you for the year

it goes on what your earnings are over the year not a weekly amount

If your worried that you will not make the amount for the year ring ses and ask them how much you need to earn to qualify for that year and how to go about paying class 3 if you wish to

seven-day-weekend

My year 2004-5 counted for me although I only worked until September 2004. I had earned enough money and paid enough NI for the year to count.

Hope this helps!

lottieholder

I had a kick in the guts yesterday. I was forced to retire (60+ 2 months) 8 weeks ago. My pension forecast was the absolute maximum including SERPS. I applied for it 8 weeks ago but kept getting a form asking for more information without specifying what extra information they needed.

I rang them. I needed to send them my Decree Absolute from 20 years ago.

I have paid a full stamp for all my working life. According to the pension person I talked to on the phone, none of my stamps before 1978 are counted towards my pension because I was married. This means I was cheated. I could have paid a half stamp as it would have made no difference.

I seem to have had 12 years Family Responsibility credit that as far as I know I have never asked for. (I did have three whilst I was a mature student).

I gather that despite my having paid a full stamp for the requisite qualifying period, they don't count. And if my ex hasn't paid his I'm stuffed.

JanieB

EdInvestor

SERPS didn't start until 1978. Before that there was Graduated Pension.

lottieholder

Sorry. Probably didn't make myself clear. I have always paid a full stamp, but my NIC contributions before 1978 are not included in the calculation for my pension. So what was the point in me paying them?

dweep

Thank you sharnad and seven-day-weekend.

I've always had this belief that if you earned above the annual lower earnings level (as specified by HMRC), whether you worked over a few months or toiled away for a whole year,...as long as you earned a bit above the lel, then you would have your pension 'account' properly credited.

I remembered seeing it somewhere on a website a few years ago, but I began to doubt my own memory as I searched for information more recently.

Seven-day-weekend, you seem to have done what I'm planning to do ie, worked approximately 5 months of year, and earned enough for your NIC's to meet pension entitlement requirements.

Once again, thank you both for taking the trouble to post.

EdInvestor

lottieholder wrote: »

I have always paid a full stamp, but my NIC contributions before 1978 are not included in the calculation for my pension.

Are you sure about this?If the period where you haven't been credited coincides with a period when you were married, it seems likely you were paying the married woman's stamp at the time.

lottieholder

I didn't want to be in my Mum's situation when my Dad went off with someone else and emigrated, so decided to always pay a full stamp. I have never paid a married woman's stamp. I was told that by paying the full stamp I was guaranteed a pension in my own right. They now seem to be going back on this and I might as well have paid a married woman's stamp until 1978.

Yesterday, I recieved a letter from the DWP stating that my ex-husband hasn't been paying his stamp so I still cannot receive the full state pension on his contributions.

I feel seriously cheated, by both DWP and my ex.

LittleVoice

lottieholder wrote: »

. . . decided to always pay a full stamp. I have never paid a married woman's stamp. I was told that by paying the full stamp I was guaranteed a pension in my own right. They now seem to be going back on this and I might as well have paid a married woman's stamp until 1978.

Yesterday, I recieved a letter from the DWP stating that my ex-husband hasn't been paying his stamp so I still cannot receive the full state pension on his contributions.

I feel seriously cheated, by both DWP and my ex.

I do not understand how this has happened to you.

Though now 60, I have decided to defer in order to receive an increased pension later.

I have been married for more than 30 years and have never paid at the married woman's rate. In my pension forecasts there has never been any suggestion that my pension is lower because I have been (and am) married (and my husband of the same age does not have a full contribution history) - I am due the full basic pension and a second state pension.

lottieholder

I find the whole thing totally incomprehensible. Talking to a friend (roughly the same age) never been married, opted out of SERPS by her union gets £3 a week more than me. A friend, (also roughly same age) emigrated to Australia in her twenties and married there. She had three children and didn't work 'til she returned to UK when she did part-time work until retirement. She gets £10 more than me.

It seems to be a very strange lottery that noone understands.