Establishing contracted-out periods

Daisyone

I am trying to help my partner, who is not strong on details, gather all the info on the various pensions he has accrued in his working life. He is 65 in October.

He has had a state pension statement and it is clear that he has been contracted out at some point for a period of time.

My question is, if he requests his NI record, will this give details of the years he was contracted out? I'm thinking that this might help in jogging his memory about where he was working and therefore who to contact re any DB pension.

Thanks a lot.

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/national-insurance-enquiries-for-employees-and-individuals

https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

You can try the above.

Daisyone

Thanks for replying Xylophone - it is appreciated.

I was aware of the links you gave but it's not clear whether asking for the NI history gives the info re contracting out. We're trying to find out which years he was out so he can work out who he might have been working for (he has had loads of jobs in both public and private sectors) - he needs this info to do the pension tracing stuff.

greenglide

I have just had a look at the pension tracing service on the gov.uk web site and it is fairly naff, isn't it since you need to know the name of the company you worked for rather than just tell them who you are and they tell you what schemes you have been in - this is data that HMRC know about, especially if you were contracted out.

But, of course, you could just give them names of all the companies you worked for and see what they come back with.

Not an ideal situation. I am fairly sure it used to be better than this.

You could always ring the tracing service on 0345 6002 537 (charged at normal landline rates, not a premium rate number, should be included in any inclusive minutes) and see what they think you should do. If you cannot remember where you worked there has to be some way?

jamesd

First stop is to use the State Pension Statement online service. This has an option that will provide a basic history of all years that counted towards the basic state pension but it won't give information about contracting out.

Next stop after that might be to call the Future Pension Centre. They should either be able to say which years were contracted out and which pension schemes were getting the money or tell you who to contact to get that. HMRC has the information, it's just a case of getting to the people who can tell you about it. Be prepared to take notes so they only have to do it once.

Daisyone

Thanks everybody. We have already got the state pension statement - that's how we know he has some time contracted out. Whilst it gives the qualifying years, it doesn't indicate which years were contracted out.

I think he will have to ask for his NI record and hope that this gives more detailed info so that he can then use the pension tracing service (for which you need to use name of employer and years worked there).

How lucky I was to have 40 years in a final salary scheme - no mysteries to solve there!

Thanks again.

bigfreddiel

I had a similar problem, so a few years ago I sat down with a spreadsheet, exciting isn't it, and in column one I put my date of birth, well just the year. Then I went forward noting the year, where I lived, job or school, car I owned, how much I earned.
Constructing this helped me remember where I was and what I was doing. Just leave blanks for the bits you can't recall and it will soon all get filled in.

Cheers fj

mgdavid

Daisyone wrote: »

Thanks everybody. We have already got the state pension statement - that's how we know he has some time contracted out. Whilst it gives the qualifying years, it doesn't indicate which years were contracted out.

I think he will have to ask for his NI record and hope that this gives more detailed info so that he can then use the pension tracing service (for which you need to use name of employer and years worked there).
...............

It doesn't.
I obtained one a few weeks ago. It just shows the amount paid per year in Class 1 NICs, the number of Class 2, Class 3 and Credits (if any), and an 'Amount needed' column if it's not a full year.
The covering letter stated it should contain details of NICs from 5 Apr 1965 but annoyingly the Payments Schedule only started from year 1975-76 although I was fully employed and paying NI from 1968!

greenglide

details of NICs from 5 Apr 1965 but annoyingly the Payments Schedule only started from year 1975-76 although I was fully employed and paying NI from 1968!

It was around that period when the current NI system came in as a percentage of earnings rather that the fix stamp based system. The cards with stamps on were microfilmed and stored (I assumed to be eventually binned) but I don't think they were ever properly computerised so all that is really known before those days is the total number of contributions over several years but not necessarily the details. At one time these were written on a ledger card and updated every year when they got another year's card with the stamps on.

Happy days. Could you imagine it now:-)