Guide discussion: Voluntary national insurance contributions

molerat

1)  Correct, a no brainer.  If you currently have only 8 years and can safely make that up with any available pre (as well as post) 2016 years.

2) Class 2 should be available to you if you were working when you left the UK and have been in work since.  If not working you need to pay class 3. The pension generated from any class of contribution is the same.

Does your forecast show a COPE amount ?

Rod1883

cmdsea said:

So.. another day has passed and I have again made multiple phone calls to the Future Pension Centre... all to no avail as they immediately disconnect once I have gone through multiple menu selections attempting to reach a human... Frustrating, especially as this is not a free call when made from overseas.

What options are you selecting Jon?
My wife had problems first thing this morning but got through at 1pm today with only a 20 or so minute wait on hold. She used option 1 (English) then option 4 and then the one that said something like 'If you have your forecast and have a general enquiry'

Sumselkb

If I phone the Future Pension Centre helpline and ask them questions about my National Insurance record then Is it okay to tell them my national insurance number over the phone? Will they ask for this?

I am always wary about giving out personal information over the phone. If they tell me it is worth paying any years that are not full then do I pay over the phone or on the Gov UK website?

I have already logged into the Gov UK website and know how many years of full contributions I have, how many years I have left to contribute, the years which are not full, what my current forecast weekly amount is etc.

I have three years that are not full which I have to ask if they are worth paying.

JoeCrystal

Sumselkb said:

If I phone the Future Pension Centre helpline and ask them questions about my National Insurance record then Is it okay to tell them my national insurance number over the phone? Will they ask for this?

How did they mean to know if they got the right person? They do need to ask for your national insurance number. If only to reduce the risk of having the wrong person! The chance of having the same name and exact date of birth is higher than you think!

p00hsticks

Sumselkb said:

If I phone the Future Pension Centre helpline and ask them questions about my National Insurance record then Is it okay to tell them my national insurance number over the phone? Will they ask for this?

Your NI number (and i think date of birth) are what DWP use to uniquely identify you on their systems, so yes, you'll need to tell them it.

Sumselkb said:

I have already logged into the Gov UK website and know how many years of full contributions I have, how many years I have left to contribute, the years which are not full, what my current forecast weekly amount is etc.

I have three years that are not full which I have to ask if they are worth paying.

You're anonymous on these boards - if you post up those details (we don't need to know your NI number or the exact date you reach retirement age, just how many years before you do) then people here should be able to tell you much more quickly that the Future Pension Centre whether they are worth paying.

If you donlt want to do that, then unless the years that are not full are between 2006-2007 and 2016-17 or you are very close to State Pensino age you are better off leaving this for now and revisiting the topic after the new tax year in April, by whcih time hopefully it will be a lot easier to get throguh to the Future Pension Centre and HMRC on the phone.

Sumselkb

I will post here and hopefully it will save me having to phone them.

I have 19 years of full contributions.
I have 25 years to contribute before retirement.
I have 8 years where I did not contribute enough.

I have three years between 2006-2007 and 2017-18 where the year is not full. All of the 8 years where I did not contribute enough are because I was at college, I have never been contracted out.

For the three years between 2006-2007 and 2017-18 where the year is not full, one is under £20, one is under £100 and the other was around £180 if I remember correctly.

It also says that I am currently at £100.51 and forecast to have £185.15.

If I retire when I am eligible in 25 years time then I will have enough full years. If I want to retire a bit earlier when I am between 57 and 67 then I guess this would change things?

I am also wondering if my retirement age will go up and that before I am 50 it will have gone up to 69 and before I am 60 it will have gone up to 70.

Another thing to consider is that when I do reach retirement age then would I get pension credit or would this be affected by how many full years I have? I am on an income of round 13k a year so the state pension and pension credit would be what I am relying on when I retire.

molerat

Sumselkb said:

I will post here and hopefully it will save me having to phone them.

I have 19 years of full contributions.
I have 25 years to contribute before retirement.
I have 8 years where I did not contribute enough.

I have three years between 2006-2007 and 2017-18 where the year is not full. All of the 8 years where I did not contribute enough are because I was at college, I have never been contracted out.

For the three years between 2006-2007 and 2017-18 where the year is not full, one is under £20, one is under £100 and the other was around £180 if I remember correctly.

It also says that I am currently at £100.51 and forecast to have £185.15.

If I retire when I am eligible in 25 years time then I will have enough full years. If I want to retire a bit earlier when I am between 57 and 67 then I guess this would change things?

I am also wondering if my retirement age will go up and that before I am 50 it will have gone up to 69 and before I am 60 it will have gone up to 70.

Another thing to consider is that when I do reach retirement age then would I get pension credit or would this be affected by how many full years I have? I am on an income of round 13k a year so the state pension and pension credit would be what I am relying on when I retire.

With only 19 years in total you can safely top up any available pre 2016 years as up to (at least) 30 pre 2016 years will be counted. Post 2016 years will always add value. You need another 16 years (£185.15 - £100.51 = £84.64 / £5.29 = 16) to reach the maximum with 25 years left to get that in.  IMO there is no real need to buy additional years now as there is plenty of slack at the other end but if you wish to then that is your choice  as they are very cheap.  The state pension age is probably going to increase by the time you get there.  At the moment pension credit is set just below the full pension amount so if you have the full quota you won't be eligible.

pinnks

I guess that if a year is partly paid then it might be worth filling in in favour of waiting but if you are going to continue working and paying mandatory NIC (or getting credits if you are on a low wage) then paying voluntarily would not be the best option.

Pension Credit is a safety net to ensure those whose income is less than the new state pension max by a few pounds can have it topped up to just below the new max.  I would not focus any planning on PC.

Sumselkb

I will just leave it then and not bother paying for the additional years because I will definitely be working at least another 16 years and will have the 35 years. Although could they change the 35 years to 40 years or 45 years or 50 years in the future?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Personally I'd pay the £20 to add one year.

Could be wasted but you never know what the future holds.