The utter disgrace and scandal of DWP and the near-impossibility of getting advice on topping up

Malthusian

SwiftSuzie said:

Sadly true. He does so much good work but seems not to appreciate the real problems he's causing with this for no good reason. 

Bro didn't get paid £87 million for a newsletter by not knowing how to make people want to click on links and blow up phones in large numbers.

westv

Pat38493 said:

SwiftSuzie said:

german_keeper said:

The frustrating thing is that a carefully prepared piece giving a decent amount of clarity would probably only take a few minutes. But Mr Lewis seems to wear his ability to get government phone lines and websites into meltdown as a badge of honour. 

Sadly true. He does so much good work but seems not to appreciate the real problems he's causing with this for no good reason. It's preventing people who absolutely have to get through because their pension date is imminent a great deal of stress, and staff I've spoken to are at the end of their tether. Some show it more than others in their manner with callers. I managed to sort my own situation out, hopefully, and I'm very grateful for the advice in this forum which saved me a lot of money. I do think though that a few caveats from Martin to people advising when there is absolutely no point in calling before 31st July (if you check your record and have 35+ pre 2016 years for example) it might take the pressure off. So would an additional option on the phone lines giving dedicated operators to those within 6 months of their state pensìon date. At times when their are no such urgent callers those operators could revert to strengthen the general pool dealing with all comers.

This ^^  it's been my impression for a while that these lines must be partly clogged up by people who actually have no reason to call before the 31st July deadline.

He could also direct people to this board! 

I'd imagine even if that was said they'd still be hundreds calling because they ignored it!

MallyGirl

Deadline has now been extended again.

eastcorkram

MallyGirl said:

Deadline has now been extended again.

Where have you seen this?

double_dutchy

See here

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/deadline-for-voluntary-national-insurance-contributions-extended-to-april-2025

jem16

MallyGirl said:

Deadline has now been extended again.

Anyone want to take bets that exactly the same thing will happen in February/March 2025?

pinnks

I think that is a dead cert, but I am not sure the government of the day would be minded to extend the deadline again - but then, what do I know, lol

Putting it back that far puts it beyond the next general election and keeps this mess out of the political debate leading up to it, whenever that might be...

p00hsticks

jem16 said:

MallyGirl said:

Deadline has now been extended again.

Anyone want to take bets that exactly the same thing will happen in February/March 2025?

No (although I was dubious that they'd extend it again this time and was proved wrong within 24 hours so what do I know!). 
If it gets to the point where we allow people to go back more than 20 years to make voluntary contributions then IMO we might as well dispense with any deadline at all. 
They might as well say 'bung us £25,000 or so and you can have a State Pension from SPA for life'. 

If anything, I think that this demand has publicised what incredibly good value these voluntary contributions are, especially Class 2,  and (again only IMO) the fallout could be a tightening up on the ability to make voluntary contributions at all. I wonder if when the number crunchers behind the politicians work out the future cost against how much they bring in if we could see some backlash and stricter rules around them.  

Pat38493

With that length of extension, maybe they will actually update their web sites and details to make it clear that the deadline is later and what it is for.  

pinnks

Last time I looked the deadline was updated (31 July version) and to be honest, it is also clear on what happens when that deadline passes - but perhaps it's just me