Voluntary class 3 ni payments

Twi6

Has anyone got any timescales for how long it takes for Voluntary NI payments to be processed.  After reading Steve Webbs (This is Money) article about payments going missing  wrong calculations and some people not receiving State Pension increases after paying out tens of thousandsof pounds, it fills me with dread ( I know I would benefit from additional payments as I rang Future Pensions before SPA). I purchased three years NI in March 2022 and although the HMRC processed it by the 7th April 2022 and my NI record was updated from that date with the extra 3 years the DWP have still to update my pension.  After ringing them they just say they will mark it as Urgent and I should hear from them in a few days, but nothing happens.  I was told there was a huge backlog but they wouldn't tell me  how long, I was told by the HMRC 10 weeks, I've been told by another DWP department 16 weeks and I've read on the DWP forum 30 weeks.  It's okay encouraging people to pay Voluntary NI but looking at the amount of blunders made and no way to address your concerns it really is a lottery.

Suppers_Ready

I paid 6 years Class 3 NI payments at the beginning of May , I received an email confirming my payment saying it will take 3-5 days to reach my account . I rang last week and told it still wasn't there so they couldn't update my NI records , they told me not to worry as it can take 2-8 weeks for MY money to reach MY account ???

Silvertabby

I paid 4 years of voluntary Class 3s last year, in two payments, by bank transfer.  Both hit my records within 6 weeks.

In my case, I made the second payment with ample time for my records to be updated before I applied for my State pension. Everything then went through smoothly/automatically.

Suppers_ready - I see from your other post that you are now in receipt of your State pension.  I hate to say this, but that is likely to mean that it will take considerably longer for your records to be updated as your pension will have to be unpicked and recalculated.  This will have to be done manually (and then the figures checked by a supervisor).  

Suppers_Ready

Silvertabby said:

Suppers_ready - I see from your other post that you are now in receipt of your State pension.  I hate to say this, but that is likely to mean that it will take considerably longer for your records to be updated as your pension will have to be unpicked and recalculated.  This will have to be done manually (and then the figures checked by a supervisor).  

Nothing's easy is it 

Audaxer

Silvertabby said:

I paid 4 years of voluntary Class 3s last year, in two payments, by bank transfer.  Both hit my records within 6 weeks.

@Silvertabby if you plan to make two or more years payments at once, and you phone HMRC, do they give you separate reference number for each year, or can you make the one online payment for two or more years with the same reference number?

Twi6

If your paying it all at once you get one reference for the lot HMRC will ask you which years you want to pay and they note that

Silvertabby

Audaxer said:

Silvertabby said:

I paid 4 years of voluntary Class 3s last year, in two payments, by bank transfer.  Both hit my records within 6 weeks.

@Silvertabby if you plan to make two or more years payments at once, and you phone HMRC, do they give you separate reference number for each year, or can you make the one online payment for two or more years with the same reference number?

One reference number for each 2 year payment.  Not sure how they allocate the payments but, in my case, it must have been really easy to work out which 2 years I was paying as I don't have any gaps pre 2016.

The chap who gave me the first reference number initially said that I had to speak to Future Forecasts, to be sure that the years I was paying would actually add to my State pension.  But he backed down when I said that (a) I was only paying for post 2016 years and (b) I was a retired pensions administrator.

Twi6

Bet your popular🤣

Suppers_Ready

Suppers_Ready said:

I paid 6 years Class 3 NI payments at the beginning of May , I received an email confirming my payment saying it will take 3-5 days to reach my account . I rang last week and told it still wasn't there so they couldn't update my NI records , they told me not to worry as it can take 2-8 weeks for MY money to reach MY account ???

Quoted myself above , so now it being 14 weeks and nothing I rang and my money has gone missing , they confirmed my ref. no. and I had the correct bank acc. no . and sort code , they are filling out a missing money report and if I don't hear from them in 6 weeks ! call again .