Voluntary Class 3 Contributions not showing on NI record online after 6 weeks.

Shaky1105

Hi. As stated above, I paid the missing two years my missus had to fill-up her NI contributions to make sure she gets a full state pension on 3rd March (Just shy of £1250) but the updated records are still not showing in her NI record. Would this delay be because of the current Virus crisis or are HMRC normally very slow to update stuff like this ?
The only reason I ask is that whenever I've had to sort anything out re: my tax (company I work for keep making mistakes so I have to sort it) HMRC have usually had it sorted in a matter of a few days so I don't want to leave it too long and then find out I should've contacted them and she loses out.
I paid via BACS (after being given the incorrect self-employed code first time by HMRC !) so have a record of the payment being sent.
If anyone has any experience of doing this themselves, with timescales etc I would appreciate it.
TIA 

nigelbb

When I purchased some added years several years ago they took about 6 weeks to even cash the cheque & it was getting on for 3 months before my NI record & pension forecast got updated.

drumtochty

You have paid HMRC, the NI record is updated by the DWP. It can easy take months for the process to happen.

We paid HMRC in May 2019 for one years Class 2 NI contribtions. It was December 2019 before the HMRC site advised the money was no longer in their account. It was late December to early January 2020 before the persons NI record was updated. Their state pension was in payment from July 2019. I think it was February 2020 that the increase to their State Pension was first reflected in the Pension payment.

Shaky1105

Right, so speed is obviously not one of their strong-points then  Our lass isn't at retirement age for another four years anyway so we've got plenty of time I suppose to check when it eventually gets updated.
Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. Set my mind at rest now 

bigfer

I have been trying to obtain a quote for my wife's missing years. Have had no success from either HMRC or dwp. 
Does anyone know the correct department to address this matter? Thanks

djp64

It's called the Future Pensions Centre:

https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre

bigfer

yes ive tried them once already and they said i needed to contact HMRC who in turn told me to contact the future pension centre....I guess they have bigger issues to work through at the moment. i'll try later in the year.
thanks for your help

eskbanker

bigfer said:

I have been trying to obtain a quote for my wife's missing years. Have had no success from either HMRC or dwp. 
Does anyone know the correct department to address this matter? Thanks

bigfer said:

yes ive tried them once already and they said i needed to contact HMRC who in turn told me to contact the future pension centre....I guess they have bigger issues to work through at the moment. i'll try later in the year.
thanks for your help

The process is a bit clunky and will be taking even longer than usual in current circumstances:

1. Use the HMRC online portal to identify missing years and find out how much each year would cost to complete: https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

2. Armed with that info, you then have to contact the Future Pension Centre to determine which (if any) of those years would actually increase the pension: https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions

Decide if you want to pay voluntary contributions

Voluntary contributions do not always increase your State Pension. Contact the Future Pension Centre to find out if you’ll benefit from voluntary contributions.

3. Finally, you then need to go back to HMRC again to make the actual payment arrangements....

Audaxer

Shaky1105 said:

I paid via BACS (after being given the incorrect self-employed code first time by HMRC !) so have a record of the payment being sent.
If anyone has any experience of doing this themselves, with timescales etc I would appreciate it.
TIA 

I phoned HMRC a couple of weeks after making the payment, and when I gave them the details they said it would be updated within the next few days. I checked online the next day and it was updated correctly, so I think they just need to be prompted by a phone call and they will process your payment on to the account. At this time it may of course be difficult to get through on the phone, but I'd give it a try.

OldBeanz

Always phone at 0800hr.
I made a payment via BACS about 3 years ago and was told it would take a while (2/3 months). HMG do resolve things if they have cocked up.

jem16

Audaxer said:

Shaky1105 said:

I paid via BACS (after being given the incorrect self-employed code first time by HMRC !) so have a record of the payment being sent.
If anyone has any experience of doing this themselves, with timescales etc I would appreciate it.
TIA 

I phoned HMRC a couple of weeks after making the payment, and when I gave them the details they said it would be updated within the next few days. I checked online the next day and it was updated correctly, so I think they just need to be prompted by a phone call and they will process your payment on to the account. At this time it may of course be difficult to get through on the phone, but I'd give it a try.

More or less exactly the same process for me. My record hadn’t updated 6 weeks after making the payment. I phoned HMRC who updated it manually when I was on the phone. Late that evening I could see it on my NI record and my state pension forecast had also updated. Whilst I was on the phone the HMRC rep explained that they had recently changed their systems so that the updating would happen automatically as opposed to what was happening which required someone to manually update the record when it was noticed. This seems to now be happening as my friend paid hers by bank transfer in mid March and her NI record had been updated when she checked 3 days later. Cheque payments are very much slower though.