Nat insurance class 3 voluntary?

metrobus

I want to pay off some past incomplete years of National insurance by the way of class 3 voluntary payments.
Ive tried this online but I am being asked for a National Insurance Reference number, it says that I can find this on my bill, but I do not have a bill since I am voluntary paying it.
It also says that it a 18 digit number starting in 60.
Would anyone know I can obtain this number ?
Thank you.

huckster

Do you have Government Gateway account ?

OhWow

metrobus said:

I want to pay off some past incomplete years of National insurance by the way of class 3 voluntary payments.
Ive tried this online but I am being asked for a National Insurance Reference number, it says that I can find this on my bill, but I do not have a bill since I am voluntary paying it.
It also says that it a 18 digit number starting in 60.
Would anyone know I can obtain this number ?
Thank you.

Have you made sure that you are only paying for the years that will increase your state pension? You won't get the money back if you pay for the wrong years.

You can ask the DWP pension service to send you a letter showing which years you can pay to increase your state pension and that shows how much that will cost per year and the increase amount of the state pension if you pay for that year.

On that DWP letter, they give the phone number of HMRC, 0300 200 3500 and you tell them the years you want to pay. HMRC then give the 18 digit number that starts with 60, which is your reference for the year/s you want to pay.

metrobus

Yes I have checked that the extra years will count.
And also I do have a GG account but there is no sign of the ref # there.

p00hsticks

If you don't have a self-assessment bill with the reference, then you need to phone HMRC to get the 18 digit reference.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/national-insurance-enquiries-for-employees-and-individuals

If you are not confident that the years your are buying will actually boost your pension forecast (not all pre-2016 years necessarily will) then you may be referred back to speak to theFuture Pensions Centre first.

https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre

Note that someone on these boards has reported that when doing this, having established whcih years to buy, the Pension Service operator was apparently able to transfer the person directly through to HMRC to make the payment.

Alternatively you can pay with a cheque by post quoting your NI number instead, although be aware that there is apparently a postal backlog of many months .

https://www.gov.uk/pay-voluntary-class-3-national-insurance/by-post

Unless you need to get this done in the next couple of months, either because either the years you want to buy won't be availible after April (2006-2007 to 2016-17 inclusive) or because you are close to State Pension Age, in your shoes I'd be tempted to leave it until after the current rush dies down, as apparently you'll currently likely to spend a lot of time waiting on the phone and there is a large psotal backlog.

calcotti

p00hsticks said:

If you are not confident that the years your are buying will actually boost your pension forecast (not all pre-2016 years necessarily will)

OP says

metrobus said:

Yes I have checked that the extra years will count.

metrobus

Yes I do need to do it before April 5th, but out of the country for the next month that is why I tried to do it now online. I will have to try and find the contact details to get the reference number.
Thank you for taking the time to reply.

p00hsticks

metrobus said:

Yes I do need to do it before April 5th, but out of the country for the next month that is why I tried to do it now online. I will have to try and find the contact details to get the reference number.
Thank you for taking the time to reply.

The contact details are here

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/national-insurance-enquiries-for-employees-and-individuals

I've not had to ring it myself for several years, but apparently the advice is not to try on a Monday, when they are at their busiest, and ring just before 8am for the best chance of getting throguh - but be prepared to be on hold for a long time.