National Insurance help

kevg_2

Hi i'm wondering can anyone give me any advice.

I was self employed between 2003-2007 and paid class 2NICs.

However today i have received a letter from HMRC saying that i owe them £232.50 in failed payments between oct 2005 and july 2007.

I am 99.9% positive i have paid this, i always kept up to date with my payments. However i have no proof as i threw away all my self employed receipts a year or so ago. They are asking me for money from 4-6 years ago!

Where do i stand on this?

I am not going to simply pay them this money, and surely if i hadn't paid the money they would/should have contacted me well before now.

There must be some sort of time limit on how long they can claim money off me?:(

smileylondongal

I don't think there is a time limit, ie I don't think ten years pass and then it's suddenly dropped off their records, what will happen is when you come to applying for state pension you will inevitably have less than the usual state pension as this relies on your contributions.

Have you called them up for advice? It's as much in their best interests to get this sorted out as it is yours so I would call them and explain. There must be some record somewhere of your paying this and it could be a simple mistake.

Don't assume anything until you've heard it from them.

kevg_2

I've tried calling a few times today but it keeps saying its busy and cutting me off so I thought I'd see if anyone on here knew anything as someone recommended the site to me.

They also threaten legal action should I not pay it.

I just find it so frustrating. They must know not many people keep their records for this long.

KiKi

If you owe it, you'll have to pay. Firstly, ask them for a breakdown of what payments failed, and when, and by what method.

If you paid by cheque or bank transfer, go to your bank and ask them for statements covering the dates that HMRC tell you, and check whether or not payments were made. You can't pay in cash, so it should be relatively simple to find out whether the money left your account or not. But you need a breakdown with details of actual payment dates first.

ETA: re your comment about keeping records for so long - no, they think the opposite (quite rightly). SE records should be kept for 6 years. They don't expect you to throw your records away before that time, I'm afraid.

KiKi

smileylondongal

kevg wrote: »

I've tried calling a few times today but it keeps saying its busy and cutting me off so I thought I'd see if anyone on here knew anything as someone recommended the site to me.

They also threaten legal action should I not pay it.

I just find it so frustrating. They must know not many people keep their records for this long.

Keep trying, as you really don't know the situation until you do.

Best of luck.

J_i_m

They do occasionally make a mistake.

I once got a letter informing me of "missed contributions" and inviting me to fill the gaps. Now this was codswallop because my NI contributions had always been automatically paid via BACS etc whenever I got paid since... well forever.

I simply sent them some copies of my P60's from the down the years (so you should keep them! ) to show them that the mistake must have been on their part, and that I had never missed any contribution.

kevg_2

KiKi wrote: »

If you owe it, you'll have to pay. Firstly, ask them for a breakdown of what payments failed, and when, and by what method.

If you paid by cheque or bank transfer, go to your bank and ask them for statements covering the dates that HMRC tell you, and check whether or not payments were made. You can't pay in cash, so it should be relatively simple to find out whether the money left your account or not. But you need a breakdown with details of actual payment dates first.

ETA: re your comment about keeping records for so long - no, they think the opposite (quite rightly). SE records should be kept for 6 years. They don't expect you to throw your records away before that time, I'm afraid.

KiKi

I used to always pay by cash at the local post office.

Not sure how it works now, but you definitely could pay by cash when I used to pay it.

KiKi

kevg wrote: »

I used to always pay by cash at the local post office.

Not sure how it works now, but you definitely could pay by cash when I used to pay it.

Ah. In which case that may be very difficult for you to prove, I'm afraid.

Still, ask for the breakdown anyway, see if there's anything you recognise and can contest. If you can't prove it, you will have to assume they haven't made a mistake and pay up, I'm afraid.

KiKi

kevg_2

That's my fear!

Thanks for the advice guys.

dmliverpool

No statue on government money I am afraid. NI doesn't usually rack up to much anyway.

Savvy_Sue

If you can phone them with the dates your payments went through and how you made them, they may 'find' them.