Maximum number of NIC years you can buy with voluntary contributions

BethHolmes

An MSE article about the state pension, in the answer to the "How many years can you buy" question under the "Buy extra pension years" subheading, says that "Those retiring after 6 April 2016 can buy up to 10 years' contributions."

I cannot find this information anywhere on the government website, or anywhere else online. An adviser I spoke to at the Future Pension Centre I spoke to did not know anything about it and said that there wasn't a limit to how many years you could buy, and an adviser at HMRC said the same, and got quite angry when I said that information I'd found online says there is a 10 year limit. A different HMRC adviser seemed to agree that there was a limit of 10 years, but she may not have understood what I was talking about.

Can anyone confirm if there is indeed a maximum of 10 years that you can buy with voluntary contributions, and/or point me towards an official source for this information? It would also be helpful if anyone also knows whether topping up a part year counts 1 year towards the 10 years maximum, or if it's only buying full years that counts, or if you top up e.g. 6 months of missing contributions in one year that counts 6 months towards the maximum. I would also like to know if both class 2 and class 3 voluntary contributions count towards the maximum. 

molerat

The maximum you can buy at the moment is 14 years, 2006-07 to 2019-20.  The article was likely produced in 2016 when the maximum was 10 buying back to 2006-07 -  a concession brought in with the new pension to ensure everyone could get at least the minimum required to be entitled to any pension. Those years, 2006-07 to 2016-17, are all treated as if they were 2016-17 and will cease to be available in April 2023 as per the normal 6 year buy back rule.

Whether buying those years actually benefits your pension or not is another matter.

You need a full year for it to qualify but if you already have a part year then you can top it up to make it a full year.

Both class 2 and class 3 qualify for state pension purposes.

If you post up the full details of your pension forecast someone will point you in the right direction.

xylophone

As a start, have you obtained a state pension forecast?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

What exactly does it say?

https://www.royallondon.com/siteassets/site-docs/media-centre/good-with-your-money-guides/gwymg-1b-topping-up-state-pension-2019-interactive.pdf

FatherTireseus

That's an interesting one; if you google it (other search engines are available) it does indeed come up with a headline '10 years' and links to the article on the MSE website.

I thought that you were limited to paying additional class 3 contributions for the most recent six years.  The HMRC's NI manual says "Class 3 NICs paid after the end of the sixth tax year after the one for which they are being paid, are treated as not paid and do not count for benefits."
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/national-insurance-manual/nim25028
There are a couple of exceptions to the six year rule but it relies on tests relating to whether the failure to pay was due to the contributor's ignorance or error.

If you reached state pension age within the last 6 years you can top up your contributions if you have gaps from more than 6 years ago, but again it doesn't quote a limit on the number of years you can add.  However you can't pay additional NI contributions for the tax year in which you reach state pension age or any tax years afterwards.
https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/deadlines

I have gaps in my record from my university days (much more than 6 years ago!) and my NI record in my tax account says I'm too late to pay these.

But I can't see anything in the HMRC guidance that limits it to ten years.  In theory (although I wouldn't claim to be certain on this) it would appear if you had gaps for the last six years, you could pay for those six years; then keep paying for any subsequent years for which you didn't have a complete record.  

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your other points about topping up part years but there are a lot of knowledgeable folk around here.....hopefully one will be along soon.

p00hsticks

FatherTireseus said:

I thought that you were limited to paying additional class 3 contributions for the most recent six years. 

As molerat has pointed out further up the thread, the 6 year limit was extended when the 'new State Pension' (nSP) was introduced in April 2016 - it allowed people to purchase years back to 2006 (which is presumably where the '10 year maximum' idea has come from), because at that point the rules were changed to say you would only qualify for any State Pension at all if you had a minimum of 10 years - previously any number gave you at least some pension.

Buying years back to 2006 is still permitted for a couple more years, after which it'll go bakc to being restricted to buying only the last six years.

But I think this is possibly missing the point somewhat - as far as I'm aware there is no maximum number of years voluntary contributions you can make over your lifetime (which maybe what the OP is asking ?) - just limits on the number you can purchase at any given point in time.

Linton

The 6 year limit/2006 limits as detailed by molerat apply to past years where you may have a gap.  If you are not getting NI through employment you can pay voluntary NI every year up to and including the full tax year before you reach State Pension Age.   

BethHolmes

I'm not talking about how many years back you can go to make voluntary contributions, I'm talking about the maximum number of years in total that you can buy with voluntary contributions in your lifetime, as p00hsticks has correctly understood, which the article appears to state is 10 years (I would put a link to the article but I'm too new to be able to include links in posts). The article was updated in 2020 and I don't think the 10 years it states is to do with being able to buy years back to 2006; it says "Those retiring after 6 April 2016 can buy up to 10 years' contributions." To me that sounds like anyone retiring at any point after 6 April 2016 can only ever buy a maximum of 10 years' contributions in their lifetime. If it is actually referring to being able to buy back 10 years in time (which was only the case in 2016, not subsequent years), then it's phrased very badly.

Also, further down the article, under the heading "Could you be excluded from buying NI years?", one of the points says: "Already at the maximum number of years? If you try to buy further years that would take you over the maximum number allowed, you'll normally be prevented from doing so by the Government." This suggests to me that there is indeed a limit to the number of years you can buy with voluntary contributions. It is possible that it means you can't buy years that would take you over the 35 years required to get the full state pension, as there is no point to that, but again if it does mean that it is badly phrased.

But I can find nothing about a limit in HMRC guidance, or anywhere apart from this site, as seems to be the case for others too based on the replies to my post. I've emailed MSE to ask if they can tell me what the source for the information in that article is, but I know they don't have the capacity to answer all enquiries so I'm not sure I'll get a reply.

molerat

MrsM has purchased 12 overall so that blows the 10 theory out the window

The problem with that article, as with so many MSE articles, is that it has been piecemeal updated with monetary values each year without being sense checked on the content and I am sure it referred originally to the 10 years back from 2016 when the normal rules are for 6.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

I agree, there is nothing I can see to suggest you can only ever buy 10 years. 

You may only be able to buy 10 years at any one point in time but this doesn't mean you cannot buy more than 10 years in total during your lifetime.

The comprehensive Royal London topping up your State Pension guide covers voluntary NIC in some detail and there is no suggestion of any such limit.

p00hsticks

BethHolmes said:

It is possible that it means you can't buy years that would take you over the 35 years required to get the full state pension, as there is no point to that

Another common mis-reporting - unless you are a teenager and therefore only started paying NI after the introduction of the new State Pension, 35 years does not guarantee you a 'full' state pension. You need to check your individual forecast as you may need more or less years, and may even have a 'protected amount' that takes you over the 'full' amount.