Guide discussion: Voluntary national insurance contributions

calcotti

Sumselkb said:

Although could they change the 35 years to 40 years or 45 years or 50 years in the future?

Parliament can change the rules whenever they agree to do so. You could construct an argument that as pension age increases and therefore the length of somebody’s ‘working life’  gets longer it would be logical to require more years of NI to qualify for full SP. I can think of several reasons why that is not sensible but decisions of governments often seem to lack much sense.

Sumselkb

Just out of curiosity, if I do decide to make a voluntary national insurance contribution before the 5th April 2023 for the not full years, then how do I pay it?

Do you make the one payment to cover all 3 years or do you pay for each year separately?

Do I do it through the Gov UK website or somewhere else?

As long as I make the payment before 5th April then it doesn't matter if it takes a few weeks or 12 weeks or whatever to update the record, is that right?

pinnks

You need to call HMRC on 0300 200 3500 to arrange payment.  They will not the years you want to pay, give you an 18-digit reference and their bank details.  Then off you go to online banking and pay.  And yes, it is payment that is important, not when HMRC allocate the payment.

SiliconChip

p00hsticks said:

SiliconChip said:

p00hsticks said:

SiliconChip said:

p00hsticks said:

pinnks said:

All years go up in April apart from 2021/22 and 2022/23, so if you do decide to pay 2016/17 onwards you will save 10.1% on 2016/17 to 2019/20 payments.

2016/17 won't be available to buy at all after April - the temporary extension to the years you can buy finishes then and it reverts to only being able to buy the six previous years - so only 2017-18 onwards.

I came here because you mentioned on another board that HMRC are currently processing queries from last September. If so then a query made today about 2016/7 would not be answered until the opportunity to purchase that year has ended. That can't be acceptable, so surely they ought to extend the purchase availability until all queries have been dealt with. [Note that this doesn't apply to me, I already have a full year for 2016/7, but it may apply to my sister who is waiting for a response to a query she made in January]

My understanding is that if you send a cheque to make voluntary contributions that it is received before the April deadline, then it will be accepted and processed. But I don't believe they will extend the deadline until all queries have been processed. For a start, they're never goingto get to a point where they can say that, and also people have had plenty of time (six years plus) to get it all sorted with a well publicised deadline, so can't really complain (although I'm sure they will) if they've left it until the last minute to deal with. 

So if you buy the 2016/7 year in order to beat the deadline but your unanswered query is whether you need to buy them or not, and the eventual answer is that you don't need to, will they cancel the purchase and refund the payment?

And they absolutely could get to a point where all queries up to a cut off date have been answered, but if their only cut off is the date for making the purchase then they can't use their failure to provide enough resources to answer questions received as a reason to deny the purchase at a later date (although I'm sure that's exactly what will happen in practice).

So, playing devils advocate, is there any reason why your sister has not queried long before now whether 2016/17 years would be beneficial to her forecast, and, having left it this late in the day, has opted to communicate by post rather than phone ?

The issue is that she did make NI contributions for 2016/7 and subsequent years but on checking her contribution record (which she only did recently) all those years are showing as empty. The Future Pensions Centre agreed that the years should be counted but they were unable to alter the record, that's something that HMRC have to do. She has spoken to HMRC by phone and they are investigating but so far they haven't made the alteration. Communication by post is a back up plan where she intends to send in her P60s with a request in writing to have the years counted. The problem is that if HMRC decide for some reason that 2016/7 shouldn't count and don't make the alteration then unless they do that in the next 6 weeks she'll be too late to take the alternative action of buying that year.

pinnks

Out of interest, was she self-employed for that year?  If so, it is possible that she thinks she has paid but has in fact not actually been billed as her self-assessment amount due may have been reduced by HMRC reversing back out what was on her return.

SiliconChip

pinnks said:

Out of interest, was she self-employed for that year?  If so, it is possible that she thinks she has paid but has in fact not actually been billed as her self-assessment amount due may have been reduced by HMRC reversing back out what was on her return.

No, employed (as indicated by the existence of a P60 )

Sumselkb

Is the HMRC phone number free or does it cost money to call it? How long does it usually take to get through and to get the 18 digit number? Do I just log into my digital banking to pay it or do I have to go to Gov UK website first and log in and pay through their pay now button? Thanks.

pinnks

SiliconChip said:

pinnks said:

Out of interest, was she self-employed for that year?  If so, it is possible that she thinks she has paid but has in fact not actually been billed as her self-assessment amount due may have been reduced by HMRC reversing back out what was on her return.

No, employed (as indicated by the existence of a P60 )

My apologies - missed that snippet.  It is just that following the change in treatment of Class 2 in, I think, 2015, some people (including a friend) thought they were paying Class 2, when in fact, HMRC was reversing it all out.

If she was employed throughout at a rate above the lower earnings limit (currently £123 per week I think) and has P60s, then one struggles to understand why the years are not showing as full, either by payment of NI or Credits and to understand why it is taking so long for HMRC to resolve.  

p00hsticks

Sumselkb said:

Is the HMRC phone number free or does it cost money to call it?

It's not free - its a 0300 number which is the standard rate (0300 200 3500)

Sumselkb said:

How long does it usually take to get through and to get the 18 digit number?

Currently, the line is very busy. People are reporting on these boards that they are sometimes on hold for 40 minutes and are then cut off, although others are having more success. It used to be said that ringing jsut before 8am was best, but that;s been repeated so many times it may no longer be the case. Avoid Mondays - mid-week is generally less busy. 

Sumselkb said:

Do I just log into my digital banking to pay it or do I have to go to Gov UK website first and log in and pay through their pay now button? Thanks.

In addition to the 18 digit reference as I recall it HMRC will give you their bank details (sort code and account), then you just set them up as a new payee in your online banking the usual way and make a faster payment using the 18-digit number as the reference for the payment.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

pinnks said:

SiliconChip said:

pinnks said:

Out of interest, was she self-employed for that year?  If so, it is possible that she thinks she has paid but has in fact not actually been billed as her self-assessment amount due may have been reduced by HMRC reversing back out what was on her return.

No, employed (as indicated by the existence of a P60 )

My apologies - missed that snippet.  It is just that following the change in treatment of Class 2 in, I think, 2015, some people (including a friend) thought they were paying Class 2, when in fact, HMRC was reversing it all out.

If she was employed throughout at a rate above the lower earnings limit (currently £123 per week I think) and has P60s, then one struggles to understand why the years are not showing as full, either by payment of NI or Credits and to understand why it is taking so long for HMRC to resolve.  

Has she checked her Personal Tax Account (on gov.uk) to see if the income is being reported by her employer?