UC and NI credits

rangout

NedS said:

Thank you. There were no earnings for the year. The online record just shows "Year not full", no other information is available other than the standard offer to purchase the year at a cost of £780.

Any suggestions how they should contact DWP? If they contacted on the journal, I wouldn't have the first clue how to deal with such a query as it's not something UC agents normally deal with (to the best of my knowledge). I'd advised the claimant to contact HMRC to query the NI record, assuming HMRC could query it with DWP if required. The claimant could post copies of UC statements to HMRC as evidence.

Edit: CAB suggest writing to HMRC to challenge awarding of NI credits if they have not been awarded:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/benefits-introduction/problems-with-benefits-and-tax-credits/if-a-problem-with-national-insurance-is-affecting-your-benefits/

I've got the exact same problem for 2019-2020 (no payments) and for 2018-2019 (missing weeks)

You need to initially contact UC via the journal as they are the ones calculating the payments. I did this, but was told to wait until April to see if it somehow rights itself (over 12 months later!). I was also told to go to the gov.uk page and request a breakdown of the NI  payments for the years in question. Four weeks on, and I'm still waiting for a response

Be prepared to be given the runaround

rangout

huckster said:

HMRC should have the data re NI credits obtained from benefits. DWP simply records the benefit claim, this opens up a data collection feed to HMRC who note the weeks the benefit is live for, enabling the NI credits to be applied.

If HMRC have not applied any benefit related credits, this appears to indicate a possible mismatch in data e.g. difference between info on DWP system and that held by HMRC. 

If HMRC report back that DWP have not sent data to them, then DWP will need to manually enable the data feed.

I called HMRC. They told me only see the information and to deal with UC as they are the ones who make the actual payment calcuations

huckster

NedS said:

calcotti said:

Huckster, does this mean that as soon as DWP open a claim that is supposed to automatically send information to HMRC? Have I understood that correctly?

Yes, I think so. Sounds very similar to the process for RTI earnings feeds that exist between HMRC and UC, although in the other direction in that case.

In this case it appeared to work in 2018/19 as the claimant received credits in that year, but has not been credited for 2019/20. We will see how HMRC respond.

@NedS Raise an incident for a ticket to be raised.  You should then receive an explanation or the particular issue can be fixed if there is an error.   It is a bit odd for there to be credits for one tax year and not the next. Could be an issue with data not being sent by DWP.

huckster

rangout said:

huckster said:

HMRC should have the data re NI credits obtained from benefits. DWP simply records the benefit claim, this opens up a data collection feed to HMRC who note the weeks the benefit is live for, enabling the NI credits to be applied.

If HMRC have not applied any benefit related credits, this appears to indicate a possible mismatch in data e.g. difference between info on DWP system and that held by HMRC. 

If HMRC report back that DWP have not sent data to them, then DWP will need to manually enable the data feed.

I called HMRC. They told me only see the information and to deal with UC as they are the ones who make the actual payment calcuations

@rangout  Send a journal message as a payment query saying that HMRC have not received data from DWP in regard to National Insurance credits and ask them to raise an incident ticket for this to be looked into.

calcotti

This is an old thread but thought this might be of interest. I am aware there have been a number of similar threads since but i don't find the search functionality on the site very helpful when finding threads.

Parliamentary written answer

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-11-23/94790

23 November 2022
Karen Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to update the Universal Credit computer system to automatically award National Insurance credits to claimants and to allow online predictions of State pension entitlement.

1 December 2022 
Guy Opperman: The UC system will gradually start broadcasting to the National Insurance system next month. This will be done automatically via an interface with HMRC systems. Since the cessation of manual record update in 2019 we have been developing, testing and refining the process of automation.

NedS

An update as I have found out a little more information:

Regarding the process, up until recently DWP will only make a manual intervention to fix the issue where a claimant is within 4 months of State Retirement Age or an MP complaint is received. All other cases will be advised the issue will be fixed in due course.

I understand that there is now a team of people working on fixing these cases, with a deadline of the end of the tax year. This is hopefully the "fixed in due course" action.

For anyone affected, it may be worth checking your online tax account again after the end of the tax year to see if previous years records have been updated.