Guide discussion: Voluntary national insurance contributions

molerat

skycatcher said:

molerat said:

Are there any years showing as "checking" ?  That is the only reason that the max possible should reduce - the year does not exist so cannot be counted  £202.84 is by paying 23/24 and 24/25 - £191.19 + £5.82 + £5.82.

Yes 22/23 is down as checking (though i paid it in June!)... So if i pay for 23/24 & 24/25 I'd get the max?

Looks that way, the "checking" usually means class 2 was available but not paid. The final year will only get you £1.01 but not too bad a return at class 2 rate.

Might be worth giving them a call to check what is going on with that year, it may just be down to their current incredibly slow rate of doing things though.

skycatcher

molerat said:

skycatcher said:

molerat said:

Are there any years showing as "checking" ?  That is the only reason that the max possible should reduce - the year does not exist so cannot be counted  £202.84 is by paying 23/24 and 24/25 - £191.19 + £5.82 + £5.82.

Yes 22/23 is down as checking (though i paid it in June!)... So if i pay for 23/24 & 24/25 I'd get the max?

Looks that way, the "checking" usually means class 2 was available but not paid. The final year will only get you £1.01 but not too bad a return at class 2 rate.

Might be worth giving them a call to check what is going on with that year.

Thanks for looking at that for me. I checked my tax account and it shows my payment as a credit due for payment on 31 Jan 24.

Flipjango

Can anyone tell me what to do if I had a child but didn't realised I had to claim child benefits for the first few years in order to collect NI credits? Am now claiming (but not talking) child benefits, but have 2 missing years and can't find a way to claim them back. Have I therefore lost them?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Flipjango said:

Can anyone tell me what to do if I had a child but didn't realised I had to claim child benefits for the first few years in order to collect NI credits? Am now claiming (but not talking) child benefits, but have 2 missing years and can't find a way to claim them back. Have I therefore lost them?

There may not be anything you can do now but it seems changes are afoot.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-administration-and-maintenance-summary-spring-2023/summary-of-tax-administration-and-maintenance-spring-2023#further-tax-policy-and-administrative-announcements

TroubleWithTribbles

Without trawling through all 90 pages of this thread, can anyone advise categorically, how long after paying voluntary NI contributions you actually start to receive the enhanced state pension.  I paid my voluntary contribution on 6th October and have received confirmation of receipt of the payment by both email and letter, but having received 2 pension payments since (every 4 weeks), neither are for the increased amount.

Silvertabby

TroubleWithTribbles said:

Without trawling through all 90 pages of this thread, can anyone advise categorically, how long after paying voluntary NI contributions you actually start to receive the enhanced state pension.  I paid my voluntary contribution on 6th October and have received confirmation of receipt of the payment by both email and letter, but having received 2 pension payments since (every 4 weeks), neither are for the increased amount.

Minimum of 6 months, probably more, I'm afraid.  Re-calculating a pension once it has been brought into payment isn't a 5 minute job, and I assume that DWP prioritise working on payments to those without any money at all.

Once done, the higher rate will be backdated to your date of payment.

coolsteel

Paid NI voluntary contributions three days ago and my records has been updated today Friday three days later A result for me. Pension due March 2024

Silvertabby

coolsteel said:

Paid NI voluntary contributions three days ago and my records has been updated today Friday three days later A result for me. Pension due March 2024

Umpteen times easier when the voluntary contibutions are paid before SPA.

A pension already in payment has to be unpicked and re-calculated to include the extra benefits.

wooden_pear

Posting here my experience.

I contacted Future Pension Centre as I had two gaps. It was a Thursday morning around 10am last month, they answered straight away and provided me with the reference number. I opted to use th enew online payment system on the Gov.UK portal. After 10 days I checked again my pension forcast and the gap were filled so happy ending.

 

P1Fanatic

I just went on the Govt Gateway site and it says I have 28yrs of full contributions and the forecast says if I contribute another 4yrs by 2044 I will get the full state pension of £203.85 (or whatever it is come 2044). However I thought you needed 35 years of full contributions per:

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated#:~:text=You'll usually need at,10 and 35 qualifying years.

So I am trying to work out how they think I only need 4 yrs (which would be 32 total). My record shows 1996-1997 and 1999-2000 are not full years - do they contribute in any way e.g. 2 partial years might = 1 year?