NIC rebates?

willtg

I read this article today in the Telegraph and believe I have overpaid NIC for about 6 years in order to qualify for a state pension. My question is: am I entitled to a rebate? Is there such a rebate process in place?


Wednesday 7 September 2011
"Employees in their fifties and sixties are wasting £11 billion a year paying national insurance contributions when they have already racked up enough years of payment to get a full state pension.
A reply to a parliamentary question from Steve Webb, pensions minister, showed that the number of people reaching their qualifying state pension age with more than their qualifying years of state pension contributions had risen by 70,000 to 430,000 in the tax year 2010 to 2011.
In total, 6.2 million people were still paying NICS contributions despite achieving a full entitlement in 2008-9, the figures showed.
They paid £10.6 billion in 2008-9, in that tax year the latest for which estimates are available. This equates to £32 a week per person and is likely to have risen substantially in the most recent tax year, since the Government has dropped the number of years of contributions needed for a full pension to 30 from 44.
Pensions expert Tom McPhail, from Hargreaves Lansdown, said the system was “fundamentally dishonest”. “The Government applies an employment tax which is notionally allowing you to qualify for a state pension.
However, when you have paid enough to get it, you still have to pay the tax,” he said. “This Government could get a lot of credit by repackaging this system so people can see what they are really paying for.”
Men born after April 1945 and women born after April 1950 need 30 qualifying years of NICS contributions in order to get their state pension. Those born before that usually need 44 qualifying years (for a man) or 39 qualifying years (for a woman). However, the amount of
Basic State Pension you receive does not increase if you work for longer and pay in more.
Ros Altmann, pensions expert and Director General of Saga said that “people would feel they are contributing for nothing” because they are continuing to pay NICS but getting no more pension for it. “This is a huge amount of money,” she said. “It will create a huge amount of resentment”.
The basic state pension is currently £102.15 a week. This can be topped up by Pension Credit to £137.35 a week."

dunstonh

My question is: am I entitled to a rebate?

no

Is there such a rebate process in place?

no.

Pensions expert Tom McPhail, from Hargreaves Lansdown, said the system was “fundamentally dishonest”. “The Government applies an employment tax which is notionally allowing you to qualify for a state pension.

It is equally dishonest to imply that NI contributions are only for the purpose of state pension.

Zelazny

National Insurance isn't optional. You get a certain benefit (the full state pension) once you've paid in for 30 years, but that doesn't mean that you can stop paying in, sadly.

Dominic9

Ros Altmann, pensions expert and Director General of Saga said that “people would feel they are contributing for nothing” because they are continuing to pay NICS but getting no more pension for it. “This is a huge amount of money,” she said. “It will create a huge amount of resentment”.

This is mostly caused by the reduction in qualifying years from 44/49 years down to 30.

Which ensured more women had a full pension.

Which incidentally, according to Ros Altmann's homepage:

From 2010, people will only need 30 full years of NI contributions to qualify for a full BSP. This is welcome of course, but still leaves many women at risk of not getting their entitlement if they retire between now and 2010.

So it is welcome when it suits, but unwelcome when convenient to get a quote in a national newspaper it seems

gadgetmind

This is one of the reasons why I'm intending to retire at age 55. Why keep on paying NI if you're going to get the square root of SFA back for it?