Gap in National Insurance - advice please

a2mn1lt

According to the gov.uk website I have four years of National Insurance to make up to receive a full pension when I get to 67.  I am a 53 year old female and, although I have several years left to make up the shortfall, I would like to pay for some of the shortfall now.  I am not working and not receiving any benefits/signing on.  The years that are available to pay are 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.  There is no amount given for 2019-2020 so I don't know how much the shortfall is, but I do know the amounts for the other years.  If I pay the shortfall for 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2018-2019, will this definitely go towards the qualifying years I need to have for a full pension?  Somebody told me that a change to the pension regulations a while ago meant that paying the older years now may not help me in getting the full pension. 

If paying the shortfall will go towards my qualifying years, I would ideally like to get this confirmation in writing from the government pension department, but I can't find a way of contacting them other than by telephone (which would be difficult as I'm hard of hearing) or in writing (which I'm loathe to do as I don't know whether my request would just get lost in their system).  The only web chat they do is for other subjects, not pension.  Does anyone know whether it's possible to contact them via email?   

Any help would be appreciated. 

JoeCrystal

a2mn1lt said:

If paying the shortfall will go towards my qualifying years, I would ideally like to get this confirmation in writing from the government pension department, but I can't find a way of contacting them other than by telephone (which would be difficult as I'm hard of hearing) or in writing (which I'm loathe to do as I don't know whether my request would just get lost in their system).  The only web chat they do is for other subjects, not pension.  Does anyone know whether it's possible to contact them via email?   

You can use Relay UK to do textphone chat with the HMRC you know? This can be installed on a smartphone and/or PC.

xylophone

What exactly does your state pension forecast say?
Is a COPE shown?
How many qualifying years did you have at 6/4/16?

Vasquez65

Do you take care of any grandchildren?
My wife is missing 10 years N I and this year she started caring for our Grandson,  my Daughter can sign over her Child benefit NI credits and it counts until a child is 12.   You can only claim in the October after the preceding tax year though and only for a year you have no NI contributions.
So she can only claim in October 2021 as she should have a full year for 2019-20. 

jem16

Normally you would be able to phone the Future Pension Centre but I'm told that they will only deal with people within 6 months of receiving the state pension.

Without more info from your forecast as xylophone asks, no-one can give you the answers. 

Your best bet just now is to write or wait for a bit till hopefully things get back to more normal.

a2mn1lt

Thank you for all your replies. 

I don't have grandchildren or any children. 

The forecast says that I need to continue to contribute National Insurance to reach the forecast of £175.20 per week and that the estimate based on my NI record up to 5 April 2019 is £159.55 per week.  It then goes on to say that the 'Forecast if you contribute another 4 years before 5 April 2033 is £175.20'. 

According to the NI record summary I have: 

32 years of full contributions

14 years to contribute before 5 April 2033

5 years when you did not contribute enough

This has confused me as I thought that I needed 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension, but the 32 years of full contributions I already have plus the four years they tell me I need to contribute before 5 April 2033 comes to 36. 

I had 30 full years of NI up to 6 April 2016.  The two years of 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 obviously fall before this date, but I'm still being given the option to pay them by 2023.  The year 2018-2019 is after this date and I can pay this by 2025 and 2019-2020 hasn't been calculated yet. 

There is mention of the Contracted Out Pension Equivalent (COPE) on another page of my forecast (thanks for mentioning this as I wouldn't have realised before) and I have typed in bolded italics below the information: - 

Your COPE estimate is £18.88 a week.

This will not affect your State Pension forecast. The COPE amount is paid as part of your other pension schemes, not by the government.

In most cases the private pension scheme you were contracted out to:

- will include an amount equal to the COPE amount

- may not individually identify the COPE amount

I hope that this further information helps and do appreciate your replies. 

molerat

35 years is a misconception fuelled by tabloid reporting of the new pension and is only applicable to someone starting their NI history after April 2016.  Anyone with a pre 2016 history is on a hybrid scheme and may need more, equal or less than 35 years and may receive more, equal or less than the full amount for any of those scenarios.

A rough and dirty calculation suggests buying the pre 2016 years will not add to your pension.  You have 30 pre and 2 post 2016 years.  Your current amount is £159.55.  Take off the 2 post 2016 years - 16/17 & 17/18 - leaves £149.54.  Take out the inflation from that back to 2016 and it leaves £132.87 as your starting amount.  The new scheme starting amount at April 2016 would be £155.65 / 35 * 30 - £18.88 = £114.53, well below your actual (old scheme) calculation. Adding 2 more years would only bring that up to £123.43.

3 post 2016 years will bring your pension to £174.57 meaning you would only get 63p per week for the 4th, not worth buying as it would take 25 years to recoup.