Trying to contact the Future Pension Centre is very painfull !

mikewill34

My wife has been trying to get in touch with the Future Pension Centre since yesterday with abosolutely NO LUCK.

Each time she phones, she has to go through the menu then wait a few seconds then gets diconnected.

pinnks

They are busy because tens of thousands of people have done nothing for the past 6 or 7 years since the extended time limit was put in place.  Now it is coming to and end everyone is waking up and smelling the coffee - it is no wonder the system cannot cope.

Ayr_Rage

Too many Martin Lewis Money Show viewers finally getting off their proverbial backsides.

Keep trying !

molerat

pinnks said:

They are busy because tens of thousands of people have done nothing for the past 6 or 7 years since the extended time limit was put in place.  Now it is coming to and end everyone is waking up and smelling the coffee - it is no wonder the system cannot cope.

And if they had done it before 2019 it would have cost them an awful lot less.

Michael1b

pinnks said:

They are busy because tens of thousands of people have done nothing for the past 6 or 7 years since the extended time limit was put in place.  Now it is coming to and end everyone is waking up and smelling the coffee - it is no wonder the system cannot cope.

Whilst I understand your statement when the information on their Pension Forecast system changes and the messaging on the website is more than poor having to contact them again is not easy - tried for the last 2 days and cut off every time. 

Can_2

molerat said:

pinnks said:

They are busy because tens of thousands of people have done nothing for the past 6 or 7 years since the extended time limit was put in place.  Now it is coming to and end everyone is waking up and smelling the coffee - it is no wonder the system cannot cope.

And if they had done it before 2019 it would have cost them an awful lot less.

Some people haven't been able to afford it.

p00hsticks

Can_2 said:

molerat said:

pinnks said:

They are busy because tens of thousands of people have done nothing for the past 6 or 7 years since the extended time limit was put in place.  Now it is coming to and end everyone is waking up and smelling the coffee - it is no wonder the system cannot cope.

And if they had done it before 2019 it would have cost them an awful lot less.

Some people haven't been able to afford it.

And now, in a cost of living crisis, they are probably unlikely to suddenly be able to find the thousands of pounds needed to buy many previous additional back years.

Whereas in many cases, if they had been paying attention, they could have been spreading the cost by making voluntary contributions on a month by month basis to fill those years as they arose at the then current rate... 

p00hsticks

mikewill34 said:

My wife has been trying to get in touch with the Future Pension Centre since yesterday with abosolutely NO LUCK.

Each time she phones, she has to go through the menu then wait a few seconds then gets diconnected.

Assuming that she's phoning them to ask what years she needs to buy to boost her pension, then if she has already obtained a state pension forecast, get her to post the details up here and people will probably be able to tell her just the same as the Future Pension Centre would. 

artyboy

Ayr_Rage said:

Too many Martin Lewis Money Show viewers finally getting off their proverbial backsides.

Keep trying !

Amazing isn't it - he actually said on his show that the state pension forecast site had crashed due to so many people wanting to check.

And if you think back to a month or so ago, the common theme for threads on this board was DB pension transfers - now it's all about NI contributions and 'why isn't 35 years enough'.

Martin has spoken  

p00hsticks

artyboy said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Too many Martin Lewis Money Show viewers finally getting off their proverbial backsides.

Keep trying !

And if you think back to a month or so ago, the common theme for threads on this board was DB pension transfers - now it's all about NI contributions and 'why isn't 35 years enough'.

Martin has spoken  

The ' why isn't 35 years enough' query has been appearing (and been answered) on this board for years, starting almost immediately after the new State Pension was first introduced, although never with quite with the influx of new posters we are getting at the moment. .

It's disappointing that after all this time the explanation still doesn't appear to have sunk in, and I for one would have hoped that Martin could have done a bit more to explain it simply, rather than simply changing his references from '35 years;' to '35 years-ish'. 

I don't know when Martin first mentioned the deadline (I'm aware that there was a podcast of his on the subject last October ) but he must have been aware of it for many years, as many of us on these boards were, and it's perhaps a shame that he didn't start publicising it far earlier.

One would almost think he enjoys being the instigator of a last minute panic....

mikewill34

p00hsticks said:

mikewill34 said:

My wife has been trying to get in touch with the Future Pension Centre since yesterday with abosolutely NO LUCK.

Each time she phones, she has to go through the menu then wait a few seconds then gets diconnected.

Assuming that she's phoning them to ask what years she needs to buy to boost her pension, then if she has already obtained a state pension forecast, get her to post the details up here and people will probably be able to tell her just the same as the Future Pension Centre would. 

I am NOT going to post personal details here.
Yes I agree that the FPC will probably say exactly to same as that on the State Pension Forecast pages.

HOWEVER I can't find any means or instructions on how to pay AVCs