State Pension Voluntary Contributions

sleepymans

After following the links through the Government Gateway to see my SP Forecast online, seeing I could boost my SP for years I was contacted OUT and then doing appropriate research and getting the facts from the Pensions Advisory Service/DWP, I made an additional lump sum voluntary contribution for 2016/2017.

I was informed I should make the payment by my online banking transfer. The lady verbally gave me bank sort code, account number and a 18 digit reference number to quote.

I took notes of the conversation and read back the above data as I'm very conscious that once a bank transfer is made the £733.20 would be irretrievable.

The payment was made on 2nd June 18. I have been rechecking my online pension forecast daily since, to make sure the payment arrived and has been recorded, but there is nothing showing.

Does anyone know how long it might take to appear?
Any advice (other than to ring HMRC/DWP) to check its safe?

TIA

solar_power

Snap, made my payment on the 14th, will be following this thread with great interest, please let us know when your forecast is updated.

grey_gym_sock

are the sort code & account number the same as the ones given in the following web page? ... https://www.gov.uk/pay-voluntary-class-3-national-insurance/bank-details

if they are, then you've clearly paid into an appropriate HMRC account, so while they may be slow to process the payment, they won't just keep your money and do nothing (which would be a risk if you paid into a random person's account).

i'd suggest checking once a week, instead of daily.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Send them a cheque with you NI number in future.[/FONT]

sleepymans

Tom99 wrote: »

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Send them a cheque with you NI number in future.[/FONT]

If that had been an option, I would have. It was made clear that bank transfer was the only option.
Perhaps it’s the employees personal bank details!!!128561;!!!128561;!!!128561;

Flying_Dodo

I wouldn't expect any sort of adjustment to appear that quick, more likely within a couple of months!

Tom99

sleepymans wrote: »

If that had been an option, I would have. It was made clear that bank transfer was the only option.

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You can pay by cheque through the post. I did for 2016/17.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]https://www.gov.uk/pay-voluntary-class-3-national-insurance/by-post[/FONT]

Iamadored

sleepymans wrote: »

Any advice (other than to ring HMRC/DWP) to check its safe?

That, though, is the quickest way to check. They will look up your record and confirm receipt of the money.

I went through this process recently; though I paid by cheque. On the reverse of the cheque, and on the covering letter, I wrote the year I was paying for (2016/17).

I rang HMRC after about a month, because my online State Pension Forecast and National Insurance record were not updated. They confirmed that the money had been received, and issued a query to their back office asking them to look into it.

I rang again after another month, because it was still not updated. They confirmed again that the money was received, and they would chase-up their back office. This happened again after another month.

Eventually spoke to someone who told me it takes 12 weeks for their back office to deal with issues. (Why couldn't they have said that in the first place?). True enough, 3 months after my first phone-call, my NI record was updated; but incorrectly!

For some unfathomable reason they plugged the years 2010/11 and 2015/16. This meant that my SP Forecast was unaffected.

However, I rang HMRC again, and they corrected it over the phone, and my online record was correct the next day.

In my experience, the quality of the staff at HMRC varies enormously. Some are excellent, others are morons.

sleepymans

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

are the sort code & account number the same as the ones given in the following web page? ... https://www.gov.uk/pay-voluntary-class-3-national-insurance/bank-details

if they are, then you've clearly paid into an appropriate HMRC account, so while they may be slow to process the payment, they won't just keep your money and do nothing (which would be a risk if you paid into a random person's account).

i'd suggest checking once a week, instead of daily.

Many Thanks, I feel better having checked that I have definitely made the payment into the correct bank and account number.....phew!!

solar_power

The voluntary class 3 NIC I paid on the 14th June showed up on the "Check Your State Pension" website today.

So it's all good.

marlot

After a lot of chasing, my wife's class 2 that she paid in January finally made it onto her record today. There seems to be a lot less automation than I would have expected.