Increasing State Pension

Stevebrass

We have tried several times now to purchase extra state pension years. I am pretty sure we are eligible. However - we have been a total of ten hours on hold (not all at once) with the Pension team. They do not reply to online messaging either. Anybody else had the same problem?

Ref44

Get a pension Forecast from the DWP; can be done online. Armed with that, see if you have gaps in your contribution record, and if filling them would improve your pension. If so you can pay by cheque, with a covering letter giving your NI number and the tax year(s) that you are paying for. The address can be founs online; you don't need a payslip. The forecast will show the cost of filling a particular year. Beware of gaps before 2016/17; paying these may not improve your pension

Stevebrass

Ref44 said:

Get a pension Forecast from the DWP; can be done online. Armed with that, see if you have gaps in your contribution record, and if filling them would improve your pension. If so you can pay by cheque, with a covering letter giving your NI number and the tax year(s) that you are paying for. The address can be founs online; you don't need a payslip. The forecast will show the cost of filling a particular year. Beware of gaps before 2016/17; paying these may not improve your pension

Thanks. Yes we have our pension forecasts and have gaps from 2016/17 onwards. I am just a bit wary if sending cheques - but it should be safe enough I suppose.

molerat

Paying by cheque is currently not an option, it has been removed due to covid.

To pay you need to contact HMRC and they may ask if you have spoken to FPC before they will allocate a payment reference ....... cough

Have you got a forecast ?  Why are you "pretty sure" you can make up the shortfall ?

Post up ALL the details from the forecast and plenty here will be able to sense check it for you.

Silvertabby

molerat said:

Paying by cheque is currently not an option, it has been removed due to covid.

To pay you need to contact HMRC and they may ask if you have spoken to FPC before they will allocate a payment reference ....... cough

Have you got a forecast ?  Why are you "pretty sure" you can make up the shortfall.

Post up ALL the details from the forecast and plenty here will be able to sense check it for you.

The chap I spoke to accepted that I 'seemed to know what I was doing' and gave me my 18 digit code without insisting that I speak to FPC first.  I assume that he could see that I had been contracted out from 1978 until 2016 - and was only asking to pay for post 2016/17 years. 

Not all records are so simple, however. 

fwor

One other point, from personal experience: When you have your 18-digit code and have made your payment(s), make sure you check (online) that the payments actually get registered on your account.

The current online/phone guidance is that they should be credited within 8 weeks (last time I checked, a few days ago). In reality, this doesn't seem to happen - my last set of payments sat somewhere for 4 months, until I phoned up (for the third time) to ask that they get put where they were supposed to be...

p00hsticks

Stevebrass said:

We have tried several times now to purchase extra state pension years. I am pretty sure we are eligible. However - we have been a total of ten hours on hold (not all at once) with the Pension team. They do not reply to online messaging either. Anybody else had the same problem?

Are you sure you're talking to the right people ?

I set up my payments via the HMRC National Insurance team, although like others say, they may tell you to consult the DWP Future Pensions Service if they can;t see if voluntary contributions would actually result in your State Pension forecast increasing

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/national-insurance-enquiries-for-employees-and-individuals

Stevebrass

Thanks for the replies.
Yes we have forecasts.
We have both not been in employment since May 2016 and so have 16/17, 17/18, 18/19, 19/20 contribution years blank.
Our forecast show our pension based on contributions based up to May 2016 is below the new maximum pension.

Silvertabby

Stevebrass said:

Thanks for the replies.
Yes we have forecasts.
We have both not been in employment since May 2016 and so have 16/17, 17/18, 18/19, 19/20 contribution years blank.
Our forecast show our pension based on contributions based up to May 2016 is below the new maximum pension.

Each year will give you (roughly) an extra £5 per week State pension.  You won't be able to increase your pension above the (current) maximum of £175.20 per week, so you may not need to pay for all of these years.

bigfer

Stevebrass said:

We have tried several times now to purchase extra state pension years. I am pretty sure we are eligible. However - we have been a total of ten hours on hold (not all at once) with the Pension team. They do not reply to online messaging either. Anybody else had the same problem?

yes on hold for ages, gave up in the end. Out of curiosity, i selected the welsh speaking option......boom....straight through. So, how many welsh only speakers are there in the UK? 
Anyone have an idea the best time of the day to contact the Future Pensions office? I don't really think its a viable option for me to learn welsh.

mark1959

j.p said:

Ref44 said:

[...] Beware of gaps before 2016/17; paying these may not improve your pension

I find this assertion logically equivalent to one or a couple of others:
In its strong form, it'd be equivalent to "You should check with DWP before paying for gaps pre-2016/17 that that will increase your pension" and "You need not check before paying for gaps post-2016/17 that that will increase your pension".
In its weak form, it'd be equivalent to "Payment for gaps pre-2016/17 is less likely to improve your pension than payments for gaps post-2016/17".
However, in either form, no proofs are offered, therefore it remains an [unverified/unfounded] assertion.
I'm not saying proof can't exist, or that the assertion is false (though it might be). I'm saying that without these accompanying it (or a link to where proof can be found) the assertion has less value (or force).

Blimey. He [or she] was only trying to help.