Voluntary Class 3 NI Contributions – How to Pay

lj12

Sledgehead said:

As the OP indicates, there is an apparent reticence on HMRC's part to give people easy access to voluntary payment.

...................................................................................................................................
Reference :
PP £££££ NNNNNN LLLL Q =
60 73320 331122 0102 ?

Where '?' is still a mystery.

PS: remember to say if you concur with this assessment so that we can have more confidence in this approach.

Has anyone worked out the mystery last digit of the reference number?

Alternatively: anyone willing to share the last digit of the reference number? I hope privacy-wise, it does not reveal too much info. With enough examples, maybe we can reverse engineer an emerging pattern from the examples?

My contributions are yearly, one-off Class 3 NI voluntary contributions. I don't have a letter with the reference number.

I have payed twice before, and the last digit of the reference was the same, number 6, both times.

Previously I got the reference number on the telephone helpline 0300 200 3500, after lengthy calls and a maze of phone menus. This time (due to the virus) they are short staffed, and I get disconnected and redirected to using the web site. The web site is of no use for getting the reference number. Does anyone know if HMRC have online chat help maybe?

Thanks for any help in advance.

Geemak

Further to Sledgehead's post giving the breakdown of the reference number, I can confirm that, apart from the mystery last number, it works for me. No idea what the last number refers to - in my case it is 9.

I phoned them yesterday, and despite the warnings of catastrophically long waits due to the COVID crisis, I wasn't even on the phone long enough to get the full set of recorded messages before I was put through to a genuine human operator - literally about 3 minutes. The system now uses voice recognition technology for the first level contact, and it did struggle a bit with my regional accent, but after a few repetitions of my NI number, I finally got past the gatekeeper. Once speaking to the operative, it went very smoothly, though I did repeatedly & slowly go through the various numbers he gave me to ensure no errors. After that, onto my online bank site and, using the 18 digit reference number, it went through painlessly. The whole process from first dialling to making the payment probably took no more than 20 minutes.

 I was told it would take around 6 weeks to show up in my account, so I await with interest to see if it comes through, as further payments to make. Interestingly, in parallel to the ease I got through in my call yesterday, I also had to phone the DWP at the end of June with regards a query they had before confirming payment of my pension and again, despite warnings of horrendous waits, that time it took not much more than 5 minutes to get through to a human operator, and again, once through, totally painless and quite civilised and friendly.

AndyGuil

I would like to get some feedback on voluntary NI payments. Out of 18 years I have not reach full payment on 6 but can only voluntarily pay 5 meaning I currently have 12 years of NI contributions but could increase that to 17. I don’t see myself working much beyond another 15 years (maybe 20) so to get the 35 years of contributions it may be wise to pay off some of the previous years I missed (through studying). My record is as follows:
2002/3 - full
2003/4 - full
2004/5 - full
2005/6 - not full - too late to pay
2006/7 - full
2007/8 - full
2008/9 - £91.80 to make full
2009/10 - £581.40 to make full
2010/11 - £795.60 to make full 
2011/12 - £795.60 to make full
2012/13 - £795.60 to make full
2013/14 - full
2014/15 - full
2015/16 - full
2016/17 - full
2017/18 - full
2018/19 - full
2019/20 - full

Should I be making these voluntary payments?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

You have misunderstood how the State Pension works.

35 years is not relevant to you as you are under transitional rules.

You need to post details (in full) of your State pension forecast for anyone to help.

molerat

What exactly does your forecast show ?  The number of years held is not totally relevant, it is the £ amount you currently have that really counts.

What year do you reach state pension age ?

You are currently working ?

2008/09 is an easy buy and maybe 09/10 but the rest are full price so no monetary advantage to buying them, that depends on what your vision for the future is and the precise details from your forecast.

AndyGuil

This is perfect. Thanks for getting back to me

I am still working. State pension year is 2054. However as I mentioned I may only want to work for 15 to at most 20 more years. So contributions may stop in 2036-2041.

Current pension estimate is £68.11
Forecast if I contribute another 22 years is £175.20

molerat

So my previous comments stand.  You have 33 years to accrue the 22 more that you need.  No point buying the full priced years as you have 11 spare at the other end and they now effectively stay the same price only increasing with inflation.  It may be worth buying the £91.80 one purely because it is cheap enough, the £581.40 one not so much..

AndyGuil

molerat said:

So my previous comments stand.  You have 33 years to accrue the 22 more that you need.  No point buying the full priced years as you have 11 spare at the other end and they now effectively stay the same price only increasing with inflation.  It may be worth buying the £91.80 one purely because it is cheap enough, the £581.40 one not so much..

Superb. I will see if I can get the £91.80 one paid. 

molerat

If you work beyond the 22 years needed (or step in front of a bus) it is £92 wasted but only £92, £600 to £800 is a different matter.  Like everything in life it is a gamble.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

And the first 21 years (including 2008:09 if purchased) will add £5/week.

The 22nd and final year will only add the balance of c£2/week as you cannot exceed £175.20.