Pension fund

Malthusian

You can pay voluntary class 3 NI from abroad, but he will probably be paying social security contributions in your own country, so he would need to check that paying social security contributions in two countries would actually benefit him. And not simply reduce the amount of state benefit he could claim in Portugal.

LHW99

If UK contributions were made while the UK was in the EU, do they count for pension in Portugal?

Daliah

MX5huggy said:

They should look at their state pension record. You need 10 years to get anything, they might be just short and I think you have the option of making additional contributions from abroad (I’m not sure and not doing the research myself). Make up one or two missing years and they could be getting a bit of SP from SP age. 

If he has contribution years in Portugal, or any other EU country, these will be considered for the purposes of establishing his entitlement in the UK. For example, if he has 9 years in the UK and 2 years in Portugal, he'd have reached the minimum 10 UK contribution years, and would receive 9/35ths of the max UK state pension, i.e. the princely sum of £47.61 a week. These rules apply across all EEA countries, and also still apply between the UK and the EU for as long as the EU/UK TCA doesn't get ripped up by Johnson.

Making additional UK NI contributions is possible, provided HMRC agree. Though for somebody who desperately needs money, according to the OP, this doesn't appear to be a realistic option for OP's friend.

LHW99 said:

If UK contributions were made while the UK was in the EU, do they count for pension in Portugal?

Only for the purposes of aggregation of contribution periods