gaps in my national insurance records due to living in Europe

bostonerimus

shortcircuitbob said:

Hello all,
I am coming up to my 66th birthday and having checked my forecast online I see that the 13 years that I was a Dutch resident are marked as unpaid years on my UK record. When I called the Gov help desk I was told to pay the missing UK years as voluntary payments, some several thousand pounds in total. I don't have that kind of cash spare and I feel it is a bit unfair having to pay it again. Has anybody else been through this experience? Thanks in advance. 

If you didn't pay NI for those 13 years in what sense would you be "having to pay it again"? You might well have qualified to pay voluntary Class 2 NI during your time in the Netherlands, but if you didn't do that I think it's generous for HMRC to have a policy that gives you the chance to catch up. So take a look at your HMRC pension forecast and see if it's worth paying some voluntary contributions. Also check with the Dutch authorities about any pension you might get from them.

shortcircuitbob

Thank you very much for your comments, unfortunately there are a lot of "perhaps and maybes". I didnt put my financial details in the post as I didnt see why I needed to. I was looking for somebody in the same situation (going through the same experience) as me who could point me in the right direction. Thanks for taking the time to answer. 
I paid into the Dutch system as I was a Dutch resident for that time, but how was that calculated before brexit?

shortcircuitbob

I would also like to add that I have checked the link, thanks Nigelbb. I dont remember reading that the last time I checked the website some while back.

xylophone

https://www.expatica.com/nl/finance/retirement/the-dutch-pension-system-106854/#:~:text=The Dutch state pension is,% of net minimum wage).

May be worth a look.

shortcircuitbob

Thanks xylophone, I was just trying to work out how to edit the comments to say thanks to you too

xylophone

See also

https://www.netherlandsworldwide.nl/living-working/receiving-an-aow-pension-outside-the-netherlands/i-am-not-yet-receiving-an-aow-pension/what-is-the-aow-pension

https://www.svb.nl/en/aow-pension/arranging-your-affairs-online/applying-for-an-aow-pension-if-you-live-outside-the-netherlands

p00hsticks

shortcircuitbob said:

Thank you very much for your comments, unfortunately there are a lot of "perhaps and maybes". I didnt put my financial details in the post as I didnt see why I needed to. I was looking for somebody in the same situation (going through the same experience) as me who could point me in the right direction. Thanks for taking the time to answer. 
I paid into the Dutch system as I was a Dutch resident for that time, but how was that calculated before brexit?

Xylophone mentioned the International Pension Centre earlier - they can answer enquiries by e-mail, so it may be worth getting in touch with them

https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre

bostonerimus

shortcircuitbob said:

Thank you very much for your comments, unfortunately there are a lot of "perhaps and maybes". I didnt put my financial details in the post as I didnt see why I needed to. I was looking for somebody in the same situation (going through the same experience) as me who could point me in the right direction. Thanks for taking the time to answer. 
I paid into the Dutch system as I was a Dutch resident for that time, but how was that calculated before brexit?

I'm in a similar situation to you as I have payments into two different social security systems (US and UK) and the thing to remember is that you have to deal with both separately. If there is a Social Security Agreement between the countries you will probably be able to use payments in one country to qualify for payments in the other, but those contributions will not be used to calculate any benefit.

So get both UK and Dutch state pension forecasts and then work out if it's worthwhile making extra payments. You will have to find the appropriate contact information yourself. FYI what I have done is to stay up to date in the UK by making Class 2 NI for many years and setting up my UK Government Gateway portal account to track my contributions. I have a similar US Social Security Administration account so I can track those payments and my US social security too. I would make sure you have accounts set up on the UK Government gateway and the Dutch equivalent and start by getting both UK and Dutch pension forecasts.

Early_Retire_Free

I am in this situation and have around 19 qualifying years in uk and a similar number in Germany.

What should happen when you retire is that the UK pension service will contact the overseas authorities to check whether you have qualifying contributions in that country.  You should then receive a pension equivalent to the highest available when combining your uk and overseas contributions i.e. in my case, the German contributions will take priority as the state pension there is higher than the UK pension.

https://www.rights4seniors.net/content/working-abroad

In any event you should contact the dutch authorities to make sure they have a record of your contributions.

My understanding is that, if you have the full qualifying years when looking at your time in the UK and overseas, there is no point paying in any additional voluntary contributions.

 

p00hsticks

Early_Retire_Free said:

My understanding is that, if you have the full qualifying years when looking at your time in the UK and overseas, there is no point paying in any additional voluntary contributions.

 

If I were you I'd double check that, as you could be missing out on an opportuntiy to increase your pension significantly for relatively little outlay

https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre
https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension