The future pension service hanging up

Robert14

Latest update; I have received another reply from HMRC administrator on HMRC forum. They advise that once a payment has been allocated to the National Insurance record, an automatic update is passed to the DWP to advise there has been a change to the National Insurance record. HMRC have no further involvement in the process and so cannot comment on how long the DWP will then take to act on this update. It is then suggested to contact the National Insurance team.
As there is no other method other than the overloaded telephone helplines, we are going round in circles.
  

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Robert14 said:

Latest update; I have received another reply from HMRC administrator on HMRC forum. They advise that once a payment has been allocated to the National Insurance record, an automatic update is passed to the DWP to advise there has been a change to the National Insurance record. HMRC have no further involvement in the process and so cannot comment on how long the DWP will then take to act on this update. It is then suggested to contact the National Insurance team.
As there is no other method other than the overloaded telephone helplines, we are going round in circles.
  

But that would be HMRC so completely pointless as far as understanding when DWP will adjust the State Pension award.

heakitt

Just an update on my situation. After getting no response on the phone I wrote to the Future Pension Service on March 3rd. After that I got some useful information here and decided to send the payments to the NI collection office. As I don't have a PAYE reference number I followed the instructions on their website and sent a cheque with a covering letter requesting a receipt and put my NI number on the back  of the cheque.

One month later there is no sign of the cheque being paid in...

However I did receive this morning a reply from the FPS, 3 months and 3 days after I sent my original letter. Which gives me all the information that I received here and tells me to pay HMRC as I have already done. Maybe if I wait another 2 months something will happen!

Robert14

A further update on my wifes situation. As previously stated, she paid for 3 years additional voluntary Class 3 NI contributions on 27th February 2023. She can see online that HMRC have updated the NI record to reflect the extra years, but has heard nothing since then. After several calls to DWP she was advised to call the number dealing with changes in circumstances. She eventually got through today and spoke to a young gentleman who was unable to help! He told my wife that she needed to call HMRC despite being told that we had passed that stage! He then said that he could not access her record and staff were being told not to give a timescale for when work is being done. My wife got the impression that he was newly trained and out of his depth. Not a great impression but a reflection of a badly run organisation. Are there any success stories out there yet? For those now in receipt of an increased pension, how long did it take?

Robert14

Latest update. My wife finally got through to DWP this morning. She was told that payments allocated to 2008/9, 2009/10 and 2010/11 had not added to her pension as by 2016 she already had enough qualifying years. Whereas years 2016 onwards would qualify. We never received a letter from the Pension Service, despite requesting details in writing back in January 2013. Does anybody know if HMRC can now re-allocate payments already  made to "incorrect" years to later years, or is the payment irrecoverable!

jem16

Robert14 said:

Latest update. My wife finally got through to DWP this morning. She was told that payments allocated to 2008/9, 2009/10 and 2010/11 had not added to her pension as by 2016 she already had enough qualifying years. Whereas years 2016 onwards would qualify. We never received a letter from the Pension Service, despite requesting details in writing back in January 2013. Does anybody know if HMRC can now re-allocate payments already  made to "incorrect" years to later years, or is the payment irrecoverable!

Did you mean to say January 2013 is when you requested details from the Pension Service?

I’m assuming you went ahead and made the payments without checking with the DWP that those years would improve your wife’s pension? If so it might be difficult to rectify the situation now as HMRC have been advising everyone to check first to avoid this situation. You can only ask I suppose. 

molerat

I agree you are in a tricky situation.  You made a voluntary contribution, as all of us are entitled to do, unadvised.  DWP / HMRC have done nothing wrong so you are reliant on goodwill, most previous cases have relied on poor / wrong advice.  

This should act as a warning to others wishing to do the same without a thorough understanding of how the system works.  It is not as straightforward as it looks to many.  The effect of buying years, and which years will make a difference, is not too difficult to work out and many of us here can do that in a couple of minutes with only a few anonymous details.

Robert14

Thanks molerat. We did approach DWP for advice, We were told that even though my wife had 37 full years of contributions there was nothing to stop her buying additional years. As she was already in receipt of State Pension (DOB 13/01/1956) we assumed she could go back to years after 2006. The pension service said they would send a letter detailing years and amounts, which we never received. By February (with the deadline approaching) we paid HMRC online and the payments were allocated according to our request. It is only today that we were told by DWP that years prior to 2016 would not count as my wife had 30 years by then. Years subsequent to 2016 can be bought so my query is; will HMRC re-allocate the payments made in error?

molerat

You need to speak to HMRC and ask.  That is the only way.  It can be done, others have had payments reallocated, but that has generally been down to HMRC error.

Robert14

Following advice on the HMRC customer forum I wrote to HMRC NIC&EO, PT OPs NE England on behalf of my wife. I sent a letter on 26th July 2023 to request a refund or re-allocation of NIC payments. As yet I have not received an acknowledgement or any kind of reply. As it is nearly six months since sending our letter we are concerned that it has not been received. Can anyone confirm the post turn round time (expected delay) for this HMRC department? In the continued absence of a response my wife is considering writing to our local MP for assistance.

Thanks