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Praise for DWP and HMRC - making voluntary NI contributions
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tacpot12
Posts: 9,250 Forumite
I wanted to record my experience engaging with the DWP and HMRC to make voluntary NI contributions to increase by entitlement to the state pension.
I have regularly use the State Pension Forecast service on the GOV.UK website to monitor my state pension entitlement. Having retired early from work, and knowing I would not be returning to work, become self-employed or claim benefits before I reached state retirement age, I knew I would need to make some voluntary NI contributions.
The Future Pensions Service was unable to take calls in October 2020 when I wanted to make these contributions, so I wrote to them. I got a letter back this week (w/c18/01/2021) confirming that I only needed to pay NI contributions to make up one of the two tax years that I was missing in order to be entitled to a full state pension. The author apologies very sincerely for the delay and provided all the contact details for HMRC, who could confirm the amounts of payment required in either year make them full. I called HMRC and after a wait of about five minutes was able to speak to an advisor who thought I might be eligible to pay the lower Class 2 NI contributions, and put me through to a colleague who confirmed I could make the lower class two contribution for one of the tax years, but not the other. He explained how to do this, and confirmed what the cost of making the Class 3 Contributions are [to see the cost of making the Class 2 contributions you have to sign into to your online Self Assessment account, amend your tax return (if you are allowed to do so) and tick a box which does the calculation for you]. Calculating the Class 2 contributions seemed a bit long winded, and as the Class contributions needed was less than £200, I agreed to pay the Class 3 contributions, and paid them this morning.
I thought the service from both the DWP and HMRC was very good, considering that we are still in the middle of pandemic.
I have regularly use the State Pension Forecast service on the GOV.UK website to monitor my state pension entitlement. Having retired early from work, and knowing I would not be returning to work, become self-employed or claim benefits before I reached state retirement age, I knew I would need to make some voluntary NI contributions.
The Future Pensions Service was unable to take calls in October 2020 when I wanted to make these contributions, so I wrote to them. I got a letter back this week (w/c18/01/2021) confirming that I only needed to pay NI contributions to make up one of the two tax years that I was missing in order to be entitled to a full state pension. The author apologies very sincerely for the delay and provided all the contact details for HMRC, who could confirm the amounts of payment required in either year make them full. I called HMRC and after a wait of about five minutes was able to speak to an advisor who thought I might be eligible to pay the lower Class 2 NI contributions, and put me through to a colleague who confirmed I could make the lower class two contribution for one of the tax years, but not the other. He explained how to do this, and confirmed what the cost of making the Class 3 Contributions are [to see the cost of making the Class 2 contributions you have to sign into to your online Self Assessment account, amend your tax return (if you are allowed to do so) and tick a box which does the calculation for you]. Calculating the Class 2 contributions seemed a bit long winded, and as the Class contributions needed was less than £200, I agreed to pay the Class 3 contributions, and paid them this morning.
I thought the service from both the DWP and HMRC was very good, considering that we are still in the middle of pandemic.
The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.
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I'm guessing that the OP was only paying to top up a year that was already partially filled...j.p said:C2 cost a fifth of C3 so could have saved 4/5th of that sum had you gone the other route.
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