Service problem - NI contributions record OR State pension forecast

Smithy60

Anyone else experiencing problems accessing either their NI contributions record or State Pension forecast. As part Self-Employed I'm registered with Gateway on Gov.uk - on both I receive the same message over the last 6 weeks and trying to access at different times of the day including the middle of the night - 

Sorry, there is a problem with the service

This might be caused by a high number of people trying to use this service at the moment. Try again later.

Any hints/help gratefully received 

Sarahspangles

No, I’ve accessed it frequently and it’s all working fine.  Is it possible you’re locked out in some way?

Smithy60

many thanks Sarah - I fear I may be but no idea how to unlock but I am able to access other areas eg Self assessment! Currently on the phone to HMRC

SadCodeMan

I don't suppose you made voluntary NI contributions recently did you? I get exactly the same error as you (and have for about 2 months). Other Googles suggest the voluntary contribution may be the cause but that is a guess.
Very irritating! All the more because I did get in one back around April and the site then suggested they had made a mistake with the contributions I made. Now cannot check and they never answer the phone...

TrackerL

Smithy60 said:

Anyone else experiencing problems accessing either their NI contributions record or State Pension forecast. As part Self-Employed I'm registered with Gateway on Gov.uk - on both I receive the same message over the last 6 weeks and trying to access at different times of the day including the middle of the night - 

Sorry, there is a problem with the service

This might be caused by a high number of people trying to use this service at the moment. Try again later.

Any hints/help gratefully received 

Submit a problem report through the web interface. They will issue a report number, most probably claim to respond within a few days, acknowledge a problem with your account after 2 months and fix it a couple of weeks later. That was my timeline when reporting the same error at the end of April. Fixed by mid July.

It does appear to be linked to topping up NI contributions, presumably some lock is applied to the affected records which makes them all unavailable but the system responds with a default, confusing, system is busy message. I think an intervention is required to clear it once the system has locked.