Guide discussion: Voluntary national insurance contributions

molerat

siremoon said:

Ok so I've done all my homework on this, worked out what the optimum number of years is, confirmed it all with the pensions centre and got my reference number from HMRC for the years to be added so I'm all good to go. Now I know that the payment has to be made before April 5th 2023 but I have a question, probably a very stupid question, but hey... 

Is it literally the case that if I do an online payment I can (theoretically) do it on any day up to and including April 5th?  Ie is it the date the payment is made that is key even though it seems it takes weeks for their systems to register the fact that the payment was made?  I'm assuming it is and in reality I won't leave it right to the last minute but it would suit me best not to pay it before mid-March.  Thanks.

I would say it is the date the payment is received by the HMRC system so could be instant or a couple of days so as long as the payment is received by 5th April then it will be applied correctly after the usual 6 weeks or so.

Sea_Shell

FYI

The voluntary NI payments I made on 2nd December 22 were applied to my State Pension forecast today.

molerat

Sea_Shell said:

FYI

The voluntary NI payments I made on 2nd December 22 were applied to my State Pension forecast today.

They do seem to be getting back to expected timescales for some things.  SIL was the same and she phoned them today and they corrected their little number of weeks bought error instantly.

Winnie45

Hi

I have tried 3 4 times a week for last few months to contact the future pension to enquire how much I would have to pay to fill in all gaps but finding it impossible to contact them by phone or any other means... Anyone know of the best way

Cheers 

molerat

Winnie45 said:

Hi

I have tried 3 4 times a week for last few months to contact the future pension to enquire how much I would have to pay to fill in all gaps but finding it impossible to contact them by phone or any other means... Anyone know of the best way

Cheers 

Have you access to your on line tax account ?

Phoning FPC is usually best done just before 8am.  The problem is that following ML's broadcast and press coverage half the country is in panic mode prior to the April cut off date.

p00hsticks

Winnie45 said:

Hi

I have tried 3 4 times a week for last few months to contact the future pension to enquire how much I would have to pay to fill in all gaps but finding it impossible to contact them by phone or any other means... Anyone know of the best way

Cheers 

 

Do you mean you want confirmation from them that the gaps are worth filling ?

As molerat points out, if you have an Government Gateway ID you can access your online tax account which will show you the gaps in your records and (I think) how much it would cost to fill each of them, and your State Pension forecast which will confirm whether your forecast can be improved by filling gaps (although be wary of buying pre-2016 years, whcih may or may not boost your forecast - if you post your forecast details here, people wil be able to help).

If they are full years, then for the current year (2022-23) and years prior to 2020-21 the Class 3 rate is £824.20

For 2021-22 the cost is £800.80 and for 2020-21 it is £795.60.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-national-insurance-contributions/rates-and-allowances-national-insurance-contributions#class-3-national-insurance-voluntary

Bellroyd

There seem to be very significant delays in the system following the Martin Lewis feature on TV in October. I first enquired on behalf of my wife (whose State Pension is already in payment) on 9th November 2022 and was told I would get a letter advising me of the amount my wife would need to pay in order to maximise her State Pension and that it may take 2 to 3 weeks. As of today, we have still heard nothing and in a telephone follow-up was told that as has been the case since well before Christmas they now cannot give any timescales.

I have full details from the Government Gateway of all shortfall years, including part years and from that I have a good idea of what this will cost and we have agreed in principle to go ahead. My frustration is that we only have until the end of the tax year to make what will be quite a substantial payment and I don't suppose for a moment they will take on any liability for their own delay causing her to miss the payment deadline.

Does anyone have any recent experience of how long the process typically takes to get a letter advising how much she would need to pay? Is there anything else that I should be doing to seek to expedite the process?

The adviser today told me that she personally is still putting through some 50 requests a day and she isn't the only one and I get the feeling that existing staff are totally swamped. The current delay is such that anyone who has not yet applied seems certain to miss out.

Pat38493

I would hope that if you have documentation that shows that you submitted the payment prior to the deadline, that would be enough.

molerat

Bellroyd said:

There seem to be very significant delays in the system following the Martin Lewis feature on TV in October. I first enquired on behalf of my wife (whose State Pension is already in payment) on 9th November 2022 and was told I would get a letter advising me of the amount my wife would need to pay in order to maximise her State Pension and that it may take 2 to 3 weeks. As of today, we have still heard nothing and in a telephone follow-up was told that as has been the case since well before Christmas they now cannot give any timescales.

I have full details from the Government Gateway of all shortfall years, including part years and from that I have a good idea of what this will cost and we have agreed in principle to go ahead. My frustration is that we only have until the end of the tax year to make what will be quite a substantial payment and I don't suppose for a moment they will take on any liability for their own delay causing her to miss the payment deadline.

Does anyone have any recent experience of how long the process typically takes to get a letter advising how much she would need to pay? Is there anything else that I should be doing to seek to expedite the process?

The adviser today told me that she personally is still putting through some 50 requests a day and she isn't the only one and I get the feeling that existing staff are totally swamped. The current delay is such that anyone who has not yet applied seems certain to miss out.

The problem is that there is a bottleneck now due to the number of people panicking in the lead up to the cut off, a date that has been in the public domain since the inception of the new 2016 pension.  Their was a similar rush for the 2019 cut off but that was not quite so critical, missing that one was purely a cost increase.

As long as you are confident of your own assessment of what to pay then just go ahead and do it, if you have any doubt post up the numbers and someone will give their thoughts.

Pat38493

Also I suspect that a lot of people are panicking and calling in who don’t actually need to 

- People who only need to catch up on years that are in the last few years which can still do that anyway even after April.
- People who don’t have enough years but are already “full” on all the past years and needs to buy credits ongoing in future years.

I have to say this was not at all clear to me and I would have called them if I had not have got the information from here.