New State Pension starting amount and full record of qualifying years- trial service

Yorkshire_Pud

molerat said:

Yorkshire_Pud said:

Also wonder if the one thirtyfifths uplift £5 a week of full state pension amount is applied for each year bought or of my lower COPE state pension before the uplift from VNICs?

Don't understand what you are asking ?

Each post 2016 year purchased adds £5 to your current pension amount.

Thanks, I just wanted to confirm that I would get the full £5 rather than 1/35 of my forecast amount which would be lower!

Yorkshire_Pud

jem16 said:

Yorkshire_Pud said:

Two years later lol.

I am wondering about paying some VNIC for the 2016 onwards tax years already have 35 qualifying years pre 2016. Shortfall due to contracting out some years. 

I know about the two year and six year deadlines to pay but once I take my pension does that mean I couldn’t pay any more VNIC even if the six years overruns the start date of my pension?

How do you pay HMRC for SPECIFIC years so they don’t muck it up and say use the money to pay for 2014/15 tax year which I don’t need but was ‘invited’ to pay. Should I get them to send an invoice for specific years that I choose to pay VNIC for, or should I send a payment with a reference, e.g. 2018/19 VNIC £761.80 but separately for each year I’m buying?

Also wonder if the one thirtyfifths uplift £5 a week of full state pension amount is applied for each year bought or of my lower COPE state pension before the uplift from VNICs?

Ok - the 2 year deadline is basically that you have 2 years after the end of the tax year to pay at the original price before it goes up to whatever the price is when you pay. The 6 year deadline means that you can pay after you reach State Pension Age but it won't be backdated and the extra payment would only be from when you paid.

As to paying for specific years you have 2 options. You either phone HMRC and ask to pay for the specific year/s in question. They will then give you the amount and ask if you want to pay by bank transfer - this is their preferred option just now. If you choose that option then they will give you an 18 digit reference number to use when you pay. They will also make a note on your account that you're paying for that year. The other way is to send a letter with a cheque stating precisely which year/s you want to pay for.

Each year you buy will uplift your pension by 1/35th of the full nSP - at the moment that's £5pw. COPE has nothing to do with this part.

Thanks I think I need to buy four years VNIC to get to about £3 shy of the full pension amount, which means I wouldn’t  get the full benefit of buying the fifth year but I will ask the Future Pensions Centre next week to see if they can be more specific about my COPE amount and the exact shortfall.

Have held off for four years since first seeing this thread but need to bite the bullet now and sort it out! Four years to get my money back isn’t a bad deal and if I died before that date I wouldn’t miss it!

jem16

Yorkshire_Pud said:

jem16 said:

Yorkshire_Pud said:

Two years later lol.

I am wondering about paying some VNIC for the 2016 onwards tax years already have 35 qualifying years pre 2016. Shortfall due to contracting out some years. 

I know about the two year and six year deadlines to pay but once I take my pension does that mean I couldn’t pay any more VNIC even if the six years overruns the start date of my pension?

How do you pay HMRC for SPECIFIC years so they don’t muck it up and say use the money to pay for 2014/15 tax year which I don’t need but was ‘invited’ to pay. Should I get them to send an invoice for specific years that I choose to pay VNIC for, or should I send a payment with a reference, e.g. 2018/19 VNIC £761.80 but separately for each year I’m buying?

Also wonder if the one thirtyfifths uplift £5 a week of full state pension amount is applied for each year bought or of my lower COPE state pension before the uplift from VNICs?

Ok - the 2 year deadline is basically that you have 2 years after the end of the tax year to pay at the original price before it goes up to whatever the price is when you pay. The 6 year deadline means that you can pay after you reach State Pension Age but it won't be backdated and the extra payment would only be from when you paid.

As to paying for specific years you have 2 options. You either phone HMRC and ask to pay for the specific year/s in question. They will then give you the amount and ask if you want to pay by bank transfer - this is their preferred option just now. If you choose that option then they will give you an 18 digit reference number to use when you pay. They will also make a note on your account that you're paying for that year. The other way is to send a letter with a cheque stating precisely which year/s you want to pay for.

Each year you buy will uplift your pension by 1/35th of the full nSP - at the moment that's £5pw. COPE has nothing to do with this part.

Thanks I think I need to buy four years VNIC to get to about £3 shy of the full pension amount, which means I wouldn’t  get the full benefit of buying the fifth year but I will ask the Future Pensions Centre next week to see if they can be more specific about my COPE amount and the exact shortfall.

Have held off for four years since first seeing this thread but need to bite the bullet now and sort it out! Four years to get my money back isn’t a bad deal and if I died before that date I wouldn’t miss it!

Your COPE amount really doesn't matter. All you need to know is your current forecast and how many years are worth buying. You can get that info from an online state pension forecast but you will need to phone the Future Pension Centre before phoning HMRC. Only problem just now is that I've heard that they are only taking calls from those within 6 months of their SPA because of the Covid situation. I haven't called recently so don't know how accurate that is.

Yorkshire_Pud

jem16 said:

Yorkshire_Pud said:

Two years later lol.

I am wondering about paying some VNIC for the 2016 onwards tax years already have 35 qualifying years pre 2016. Shortfall due to contracting out some years. 

I know about the two year and six year deadlines to pay but once I take my pension does that mean I couldn’t pay any more VNIC even if the six years overruns the start date of my pension?

How do you pay HMRC for SPECIFIC years so they don’t muck it up and say use the money to pay for 2014/15 tax year which I don’t need but was ‘invited’ to pay. Should I get them to send an invoice for specific years that I choose to pay VNIC for, or should I send a payment with a reference, e.g. 2018/19 VNIC £761.80 but separately for each year I’m buying?

Also wonder if the one thirtyfifths uplift £5 a week of full state pension amount is applied for each year bought or of my lower COPE state pension before the uplift from VNICs?

Ok - the 2 year deadline is basically that you have 2 years after the end of the tax year to pay at the original price before it goes up to whatever the price is when you pay. The 6 year deadline means that you can pay after you reach State Pension Age but it won't be backdated and the extra payment would only be from when you paid.

As to paying for specific years you have 2 options. You either phone HMRC and ask to pay for the specific year/s in question. They will then give you the amount and ask if you want to pay by bank transfer - this is their preferred option just now. If you choose that option then they will give you an 18 digit reference number to use when you pay. They will also make a note on your account that you're paying for that year. The other way is to send a letter with a cheque stating precisely which year/s you want to pay for.

Each year you buy will uplift your pension by 1/35th of the full nSP - at the moment that's £5pw. COPE has nothing to do with this part.

I established with the future pensions team, very helpful that I need four years and I then opted to pay two years now to beat the price rise in April 2021. I then phoned HMRC took a while about 15 minutes to talk to someone got the 18 digit reference number told them the yearsI want to buy and then did a Bacs transfer to their account. I was told about ten bank working days to show in my online pension forecast. 

22 days later and it’s still not showing in my account and have not received a single acknowledgement that HMRC have received a payment, poor show as it’s over £1500.
Phoned the future pensions team again as it’s a free call and they said it can take a few days, weeks or months to show and can even  be applied to the wrong years or otherwise temporarily lost in the system depending on what level of access an employee has to my records.

Was going to phone HMRC tomorrow but they have restricted their hours so it will have to be Monday. Not quite the simple process I was hoping for but the payment reference from my bank did show it was to HMRC national insurance so that’s slightly reassuring!

Yorkshire_Pud

Update on previous post. I contacted them and it turns out they are currently working to a SIX week not two week turnaround to update their/my NI record. He did it there and then though in a few minutes. Record shows as updated with new pension estimate. Great relief finally.

Still poor to think you can make a Bacs payment of over £1500 and have to keep your fingers crossed they actually have it and will allocate the funds to ones pension in six weeks with not a word said or receipt in all that time. An initial acknowledgement of money received should be a basic expectation!?