Earning NI Qualifying years - working part of the year

pochisoldi

Do I actually need 52 individual weekly/12 individual monthly pay packet's worth NI contributions to make a full year?

Given that according to https://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn105.pdf, A qualifying year is defined as "a tax year since 1978–79 in which an individual paid (or is credited as having paid – see Section 3.2.2) class 1, 2 or 3 NI contributions on earnings of at least 52 times the LEL"

52x LEL is £5876pa for 17/18.

So far I've paid about £2700 in NI on gross earnings of £33k.

Does this mean that for me, 2017/18 is in the bag, and I don't need to worry about getting an NI credit/making further contributions for the rest of this tax year? (given that I've been made redundant and there's a chance that I won't be paying any class 1 NI in Feb or March).

PochiSoldi
(quietly ignoring the fact that a director's contribution period is the whole year, because it doesn't apply to him)

WillowCat

I once got a full years contribution from just six weeks of work. I have a couple more years with big gaps in employment but because I was earning a decent wage I was over the lower earnings limit so got a few years.

enjoyyourshoes

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

try this

pochisoldi

enjoyyourshoes wrote: »

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

try this

Checking my NI record and/or pension forecast will only tell me how many previous years I have in the bag. The status of this tax year won't be shown until sometime after April.

Finding information from DWP on what constitutes a qualifying year is nigh on impossible. Now if there was a DWP pensions manual, in the same style as the HMRC National Insurance Contributions manual, life would be a lot easier. (the HMRC manual is about collection and liability, and has nothing about qualifying years)...

xylophone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5495808

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You should be fine, I got a full year credit working until July and paying a total of £1,030 NI.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]However a recent poster paid NI on a one off deferred bonus of £40,000, way over the limit but apparently did not receive a full year credit.[/FONT]

greenglide

Now if there was a DWP pensions manual, in the same style as the HMRC National Insurance Contributions manual, life would be a lot easier. (the HMRC manual is about collection and liability, and has nothing about qualifying years)..

But the decisions about qualifying years are made by HMRC, not DWP.

HMRC are in charge of collection of NI, what used to be the "Contributions Agency" in the past.

Once the Contributions Agency was taken away from DWP (not certain of it was even called that then) the whole thing seems to be broken as the main user of the data is DWP.

kangoora

I worked abroad for two years from late 1999 spanning 3 tax years. I made enough contributions in the 2 'part' years (1999-2000 and 2001-2002) to get qualifying NI contributions.

I didn't qualify for 2000-2001 as I spent the full year abroad.

Pretty sure it depends on total contributions for the year regardless of how many weeks you work unless something changed since then.

Tom99

kangoora wrote: »

Pretty sure it depends on total contributions for the year regardless of how many weeks you work unless something changed since then.

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That's what I thought but if you look at the definition of 'Qualifying Year' in the old pre 2016 system it is not the same as the new post 2016 system.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Old version P15 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/520713/withdrawn-dwp026-state-pension.pdf
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]New version P4
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/514293/your-state-pension-explained-apr-2016.pdf [/FONT]

greenglide

The previous version was wrong since it didn't have the wording "from a single employer".

The later version is better since it does clarify this. I suspect people will still get confused over the fact that you don't actually need to pay any NI as long as you are over the lower earning limit rather than the primary threshold. They have described them separately which isn't ideal!

The law hasn't changed.

Soul_Siesta

I agree with the poster who said it is impossible to find out what constitutes a qualifying year. The rules assume consistent pay patterns weekly or monthly. I get paid on a sessional basis for any hours I work that month. So far I have earned enough each month to pay NI, but there will be some months in the year when I get no work for 3 weeks so will not earn the lower earnings limit that month. I want to know if I will get credited with NI so long as my annual earnings exceed the lower earnings weekly limit x 52. Does anyone know ?