National Insurance errors discussion thread

zagfles

StephenL wrote: »

I attended university at the beginning of the 90s and having just checked my NI contribution history found that I do not have credits for this time. Current students do not get credits for full-time study at universities but has that always been the case?
Thanks

You don't get credits for university, I didn't in the 80's. You used to get credits for non-advanced education eg A-levels but I think that's now been stopped, as the number of qualifying years for a full pension is now lower.

zagfles

50Twuncle wrote: »

No - I was given 3 years NI credits when I attended university in the mid 80's

Did you work as well? Or get benefits eg child benefit? You didn't get credits for university education.

50Twuncle

zagfles wrote: »

Did you work as well? Or get benefits eg child benefit? You didn't get credits for university education.

I worked during the holidays - but was credited with full NI credits for 3 years (aged 21-24) after an apprenticeship (which was block release at college and I was also credited with 4 years full NI for that)

zagfles

50Twuncle wrote: »

I worked during the holidays - but was credited with full NI credits for 3 years

You don't need to work the whole year, you just need to earn 52x the LEL in the tax year to get a full qualifying year. In today's terms about £6k.

50Twuncle

zagfles wrote: »

You don't need to work the whole year, you just need to earn 52x the LEL in the tax year to get a full qualifying year. In today's terms about £6k.

Well that explains it - although I would have been earning minimum wage for perhaps 15 weeks a year !!
No idea exactly how much I earned ...

p00hsticks

zagfles wrote: »

You don't get credits for university, I didn't in the 80's. You used to get credits for non-advanced education eg A-levels but I think that's now been stopped, as the number of qualifying years for a full pension is now lower.

Paragraph 25 of the gov,uk document here
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/209123/national-insurance-single-tier-note.pdf says that;

"From 1975 16, 17 and 18 year olds were given credits if they stayed in full time education, approved training or apprenticeship to protect their state pension position.These credits were ended on 6 April 2010 because the reduction in the number of qualifying years required for a full basic State Pension at that time meant that they were no longer needed."

In practise, from previous discussions on the subject on this board, I don't think there were any checks done to confirm that people were actually in full time education (or even in the country) and they were simply creditted to everyone. (Presumably it would have been more costly to provide the validation adminstration than to simply award the credits to all).

I agree that you weren't given credits for attneding university - I have years missing from my record for this period.

Savvy_Sue

StephenL wrote: »

I attended university at the beginning of the 90s and having just checked my NI contribution history found that I do not have credits for this time. Current students do not get credits for full-time study at universities but has that always been the case?
Thanks

The answer 'yes' will be too short, so I will expand it to say that AFAIK, students have never received NI credits for the time they are at university - you receive credits for certain benefits (and Child Benefit is one which gives you 'Home Responsibilities Protection), and you pay NI if you earn over £x per week / month.

In my day (student back in the 70s), I did get at least one letter outlining that I did not have credit for those years. I don't know if this was triggered because I had worked some vacations, and earned enough to have to pay NI for part of the year. I only remember that the letter gave the option to make voluntary payments to make those years up to full years. It's a time limited offer, and it's worth working out whether those years are likely to be critical to your state pension calculations. Obviously there are other benefits to having a full NI contribution record but that's where I started!

p00hsticks

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

In my day (student back in the 70s), I did get at least one letter outlining that I did not have credit for those years. I don't know if this was triggered because I had worked some vacations, and earned enough to have to pay NI for part of the year. I only remember that the letter gave the option to make voluntary payments to make those years up to full years. It's a time limited offer, and it's worth working out whether those years are likely to be critical to your state pension calculations. Obviously there are other benefits to having a full NI contribution record but that's where I started!

I had similar, but you need to bear in mind that in those days women needed to get in 39 years of contributions to qualify for a full basic pension at age 60, whilst men needed 44 years to get the same at age 65. Every year therefore counted - you couldn't afford to miss more than a couple of years without suffering a reduced pension . That's why credits for people carrying on in education between 16-18 were introduced.

The situation is very different now - both men and women now only need 35 years to qualify for a full new State Pension (barring transitional cases), and the state pension age has risen and will continue to do so. There's therefore not the same incentive to ensure that you have made full NI contribution for each and every possible year.

50Twuncle

zagfles wrote: »

You don't need to work the whole year, you just need to earn 52x the LEL in the tax year to get a full qualifying year. In today's terms about £6k.

£8060 pa - £155 per week
but you now need to work a full year to claim NI credits

zagfles

50Twuncle wrote: »

£8060 pa - £155 per week
but you now need to work a full year to claim NI credits

Sorry but this is complete rubbish.

It's the LEL (112pw - ie about £6k pa like I said) that counts for credits. Not the PT (£155pw), that's when you start paying NI.

You get credits if you earn above the LEL even if you don't pay any NI.

You get a qualifying year even if you only work part of the year, as long as you earn at least 52x the LEL over the year. Though I don't think any earnings in pay periods where you earned below the LEL would count.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-national-insurance-contributions/rates-and-allowances-national-insurance-contributions

http://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/employed/what-national-insurance-do-i-pay-employee

http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06817/SN06817.pdf

Qualifying years under the single-tier pension will be generated in the same way as qualifying years for the current basic State Pension. A qualifying year will be defined as a tax year during an individual’s working life in which they paid, or were treated as having paid, National Insurance contributions or were credited with National Insurance contributions on earnings of 52 times the ‘Lower Earnings Limit’ (LEL)