Guide discussion: Voluntary national insurance contributions

DancingFlamingo

Thank you for your comments. My first post but it's been a positive experience 

molerat

London2023 said:

Molerat. in 2016 it was £97 pw (plus £28 COPE). In 2000 DWP sent me an invitation letter to claim SP but no figures were included.

I am confused now.  which financial year did you reach state pension age ?

£97 at 2016 would be worth £115.36 today.  With that COPE you could only add up to 9 pre 2016 years, the 10th would add nothing.  Pre 2016 years add £4.73 per year and post 2016 years add £5.29 so post 2016 years are preferable,

London2023

Molerat. I reached SP age in November 2000

Dazed_and_C0nfused

London2023 said:

Molerat. I reached SP age in November 2000

In your original post you said this. 

Something doesn't add up here!

68 y/o retired in 2000 no income, benefits, pension since. I have a private pension pot but not accessed it yet.

London2023

Sorry. my mistake reached SP age in Nov 2020

molerat

OK

£97 in 2016 would be worth £115.36 today not deferred.

With that COPE you can only buy up to 9 of those 2015-16 and earlier years, the 10th would add nothing.

Each pre 2016 year will add £4.73 but a post 2016 year, of which you will have 4 available will add £5.29.

You can get to a maximum of £179.09 (not taking account of any deferral uplift) with 9 pre and 4 post 2016 years at a cost of £10714.60.

If you are not going to buy the full number then the 4 post 2016 years should take preference as they give a slightly better return.

Most of those years, apart from 2017-18 to 2019-20 cease to be available from April but as you have started things rolling they may allow extra time.

Don't expect that letter from DWP to make any sense, we have seen one here and it is pretty much incomprehensible.

London2023

Also, invitation letter from DWP was 2020 (not 2000). So sorry for confusion caused.

London2023

Thank you Molerat. That is a comprehensive answere and thanks for your patience with me!

windward10

I am already claiming state pension but I was in the Fire Sevice and had been opted out for 23 years. My online information said I had 39 years of full contributions but 11 years when I didn't pay enough. I have been trying to sort this out for some while and I have requested a forecast but have been passed from pillar to post by the State Pension Service. The online NI details only show the years that were not full with no detail about how much.

I know they are stretched, especially after Martin's TV slot the other day, but I am really annoyed that I will miss the deadline due to the delays on their system. I am on chemo and have a bit of brain fog so this doesn't help when dealing with their confusing and circular contact options.

I found out today the forcast request is on the system but they are currently taking up to 6 months to be sent out. In addition it will take up to 6 months to register any additional payments on to their system before I will get any increase, although this should be back dated. For me timescale is quite important.

I am not sure about my actuarial life expectancy and whether it is going to be worth topping up. Is there any way to calculate how much I could top up or what the increase would be worth, without having to wait for their delayed forecast?

Linton

Macko1 said:

Are none of those gap years showing an amount ?  Usually the "checking" heading is because of self employed status and no class 2 paid.

No, I was either on jobseekers' allowance (Part of the year) or self-employed in those years.

Just to give a slight update, I tried a trick mentioned on another thread and went through to the Welsh speaker pension centre link. I got through first time, but he said he was not allowed to help English speakers! He did however give useful advice that the pension centre could not give me the unique 18-digit number required for each tax year to pay the additional amounts, only HMRC could do this on the 0300 200 3500 number. He said they would also see how much I needed to pay on each year.

So with the useful information from Molerat above, it would seem I should keep trying to pay before the deadline 3 years before 2016, and 3 years after which can wait a little. I am back in the UK for one week in July, so can chase then for those post 2016 years.

I have been on hold now on the HMRC 0300 200 3500 number for 51 minutes ....

Thank you for the useful help on here.

2016/17 also drops off the 6 year limit in April this year.