Do I need to sign on for national insurance purposes whilst short break between 2 jobs

oldestgnome

Hello

Please move if I've put this in the incorrect section.

I finished my previous employment on 31st December, I received a severance payment from my employer so do not need to claim benefits until I start a new job at the start of February.

I have not signed on nor advised anyone I am not working for 5 weeks. What should I do to get my national insurance stamp for these few weeks?

Would appreciate any advice, I had a look on gov.uk but it does not cover this scenario.

TIA

Owain_Moneysaver

You don't have to, but it may affect your future state pension or other benefits if you don't.

You can sign on and claim JSA National Insurance Credits Only (but you still have to be actively seeking work) or pay additional voluntary contributions of £14.65 a week for Class 3. AVCs don't always increase your state pension entitlement.

https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions

ohreally

How many years contributions do you have?

donnajunkie

I think it depends how many years of contributions you have. I think you need 30 or 35. If you have less by the time you retire it can affect your pension. You can choose to pay it yourself. If you sign on you will have to do what all other jobseekers are required to do. You can still be sanctioned but if you dont get benefit it would solely affect your ni.

tomtom256

The chance of getting a 5 week backdate is slim, as you have no reasonable excuse for not applying straight away.


You only need 30 years at the moment for a full state pension, so do a pension forecast and see how many you have and work out your options from there.

oldestgnome

Great, thanks.

I have no intention of looking for work as I have a job starting and should have sufficient years by the time I get to retirement for a state pension if it still exists...

Thank you for your answers, really appreciate your time and input 🙂

[Deleted User]

donnajunkie wrote: »

I think it depends how many years of contributions you have. I think you need 30 or 35. If you have less by the time you retire it can affect your pension. You can choose to pay it yourself. If you sign on you will have to do what all other jobseekers are required to do. You can still be sanctioned but if you dont get benefit it would solely affect your ni.

You need 35 full years N.I, to get 100% of the new SRP

calcotti

You don't actually need a contribution every week to get a full year. If your job was well paid you may already have paid enough to get a full year anyway. See discussions here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5774173/earning-ni-qualifying-years-working-part-of-the-year and https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71234294#Comment_71234294

Whether you have a full years contributions depends on how much income you have paid them against over the year but the rules around what income is counted are somewhat confusing.