Never ending national insurance payments

bostonerimus · 9 March 2022 at 11:56PM

Audaxer said:

bostonerimus said:

p00hsticks said:

bostonerimus said:

I've been paying voluntary Class 2 NI for most of my working life and started out needing 30 years of contributions for the full state pension, then the number was raised to 35 years.

Are you sure about that (you sound like you were born before 1990) ? Until 2010 the requirement for a full state pension was 44 years NI for men and 39 for women, whcih included 3 years credits for the ages 16-18. It then dropped to 30 years for both men and women, with the removl of the 16-18 credits, before being raised to 35 with the intorduction of the new State Pension in 2016.

Yes sorry I should not have said "started out". I got a letter from HMRC a few years before I reached 30 years of contributions to say that I didn't need to pay more beyond that. Then I got another saying the new number was 35 years and explaining the flat rate pension. I was glad as I would only have qualified for basic SP under the old system and got a considerable top up under the new flat rate pension and the extra 5 years were well worth it. Given everything that's happening I can easily imagine the number of years to qualify for full pension creeping back up to 40 or more so I keep paying the low Class 2 while I can.

If your SP forecast shows that you are already due to get the maximum £179.60 per week, I can't see that paying any more voluntary NI will make any difference. Even if the rules change from 35 to 40 years, I think that would only be applicable to people who started contributing since 2016.

You might be right, but given the current trend to Orwellian double speak and all the caveats on my forecast about "under current legislation" I pay it just for the fun of it and to get the annual HMRC letter. At least I'm helping Rishi balance the books with my 150GBP a year and frankly after all the education and grants I got in the 1980s why not, I gave more than that to the SNP and the LibDems last year.

Audaxer · 10 March 2022 at 9:02AM

bostonerimus said:

Audaxer said:

bostonerimus said:

p00hsticks said:

bostonerimus said:

I've been paying voluntary Class 2 NI for most of my working life and started out needing 30 years of contributions for the full state pension, then the number was raised to 35 years.

Are you sure about that (you sound like you were born before 1990) ? Until 2010 the requirement for a full state pension was 44 years NI for men and 39 for women, whcih included 3 years credits for the ages 16-18. It then dropped to 30 years for both men and women, with the removl of the 16-18 credits, before being raised to 35 with the intorduction of the new State Pension in 2016.

Yes sorry I should not have said "started out". I got a letter from HMRC a few years before I reached 30 years of contributions to say that I didn't need to pay more beyond that. Then I got another saying the new number was 35 years and explaining the flat rate pension. I was glad as I would only have qualified for basic SP under the old system and got a considerable top up under the new flat rate pension and the extra 5 years were well worth it. Given everything that's happening I can easily imagine the number of years to qualify for full pension creeping back up to 40 or more so I keep paying the low Class 2 while I can.

If your SP forecast shows that you are already due to get the maximum £179.60 per week, I can't see that paying any more voluntary NI will make any difference. Even if the rules change from 35 to 40 years, I think that would only be applicable to people who started contributing since 2016.

You might be right, but given the current trend to Orwellian double speak and all the caveats on my forecast about "under current legislation" I pay it just for the fun of it and to get the annual HMRC letter. At least I'm helping Rishi balance the books with my 150GBP a year and frankly after all the education and grants I got in the 1980s why not, I gave more than that to the SNP and the LibDems last year.

I hope I'm right because I've got 46 years full contributions and will be making another 3 years of voluntary contributions of around £800 a year to get up to the maximum £179.60 per week. So even if the government increased to needing 40 years, I certainly would hope that wouldn't affect me or anyone with already over 40 years of contributions. Hopefully it also wouldn't affect you or anyone already on the maximum forecast.

bostonerimus · 10 March 2022 at 4:52PM

Audaxer said:

bostonerimus said:

Audaxer said:

bostonerimus said:

p00hsticks said:

bostonerimus said:

I've been paying voluntary Class 2 NI for most of my working life and started out needing 30 years of contributions for the full state pension, then the number was raised to 35 years.

Are you sure about that (you sound like you were born before 1990) ? Until 2010 the requirement for a full state pension was 44 years NI for men and 39 for women, whcih included 3 years credits for the ages 16-18. It then dropped to 30 years for both men and women, with the removl of the 16-18 credits, before being raised to 35 with the intorduction of the new State Pension in 2016.

Yes sorry I should not have said "started out". I got a letter from HMRC a few years before I reached 30 years of contributions to say that I didn't need to pay more beyond that. Then I got another saying the new number was 35 years and explaining the flat rate pension. I was glad as I would only have qualified for basic SP under the old system and got a considerable top up under the new flat rate pension and the extra 5 years were well worth it. Given everything that's happening I can easily imagine the number of years to qualify for full pension creeping back up to 40 or more so I keep paying the low Class 2 while I can.

If your SP forecast shows that you are already due to get the maximum £179.60 per week, I can't see that paying any more voluntary NI will make any difference. Even if the rules change from 35 to 40 years, I think that would only be applicable to people who started contributing since 2016.

You might be right, but given the current trend to Orwellian double speak and all the caveats on my forecast about "under current legislation" I pay it just for the fun of it and to get the annual HMRC letter. At least I'm helping Rishi balance the books with my 150GBP a year and frankly after all the education and grants I got in the 1980s why not, I gave more than that to the SNP and the LibDems last year.

I hope I'm right because I've got 46 years full contributions and will be making another 3 years of voluntary contributions of around £800 a year to get up to the maximum £179.60 per week. So even if the government increased to needing 40 years, I certainly would hope that wouldn't affect me or anyone with already over 40 years of contributions. Hopefully it also wouldn't affect you or anyone already on the maximum forecast.

I'm a cynic I suppose. I can just imagine the retirement age being increased and then some minister saying "you've go more time to work so we're adjusting the contributions in line with that".