NI Top Up Deadline Extended To 5th April 2025

Glitterbin

I've helped my 63 year old partner register for the government gateway, but when he has asked to review his NI contribution record a message advised they are reviewing his records and they will be available online from 6th April 2025. Is it too late for him to take advantage of this extended deadline? 

QrizB

Glitterbin said:

I've helped my 63 year old partner register for the government gateway, but when he has asked to review his NI contribution record a message advised they are reviewing his records and they will be available online from 6th April 2025. Is it too late for him to take advantage of this extended deadline? 

What does his state pension forecast say?
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Bobandrex

My husband asked for advice on how many years he need to contribute out of his missing ones (when we lived abroad) and they told him they couldn’t say how much we should pay in. We have made a catch up payment but no update has been showing for the last month since we paid. He rang again today and they told him that it can take 30 weeks (yes 3 0 weeks!!!) before it will show his new balance. If we haven’t paid enough then we will be too late to meet the deadline to pay more! 

We’ll both be drawing our pensions by the time we’ve done on the phone with these guys - only waited an hour this morning for someone to answer, improvement on the 3hours a few weeks ago! Hope we don’t die before we draw our pension after all this effort!!

molerat

If you post up the following anonymous info from the forecast someone will figure it out for you

Current weekly £££.pp amount up to April 2024.
Number of full NI years 15-16 and earlier
Number of full NI years 16-17 and later
Tax year you reach state retirement
Any COPE amount.  If you have "You've been in a contracted-out pension scheme" on your forecast then click
here https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-your-state-pension/account/cope whilst logged into your tax account
Years which show not full and prices
Years you topped up last time.

Have you booked a call back ? As long as you have a call booked you should be immune from the cut off

https://secure.dwp.gov.uk/request-a-call-back-to-pay-voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/contact-form

Merce

My wife finished working in 2014 and as a WASPI couldn't claim her state pension until a few years later. During those years between finishing work and getting her state pension her income was £11-13k employment pension a year plus < 3-4k in property rental income. When she checked her NI record these years are showing as unpaid.. the NI amounts outstanding are £800 approx for each year. This seems quite high for someone on a low income and in turn this has reduced her payable state pension.  I am wondering if the outstanding NI contributions could be based on her previous employment and not on her actual income after finishing work ? 

Is it the responsibility of a retiree to pay NI contributions after finishing work when receiving an employment pension ? 
So do the outstanding NI contributions for the missing years seem "correct" to folks here ? 
If this is a mistake how does she go about getting the NI contributions due corrected ? 

We actually wrote to HMRC about this in 2022 but never got a reply. 

molerat

Is it the responsibility of a retiree to pay NI contributions after finishing work when receiving an employment pension ?

Yes, who else do you think should pay them ?

So do the outstanding NI contributions for the missing years seem "correct" to folks here ?

Yes

If this is a mistake how does she go about getting the NI contributions due corrected ?

There is no mistake.  The state pension is a contributory benefit. You receive NI credits for working or with some benefits.  If you do not qualify through those routes you can make voluntary contributions which are at a set rate.  Or you may be able to get some transferred across for looking after grandchildren.

QrizB

Type your comment

Merce said:

During those years between finishing work and getting her state pension her income was £11-13k employment pension a year plus < 3-4k in property rental income. When she checked her NI record these years are showing as unpaid

Pensions aren't subject to National Insurance. If she was completing a Self Assessment tax return she will have been offered the opportunity to pay voluntary NI for those years. It looks like she chose not to.

Merce said:

the NI amounts outstanding are £800 approx for each year. This seems quite high for someone on a low income

That sounds like the standard Class 3 voluntary rate. It's normal.

Merce said:

I am wondering if the outstanding NI contributions could be based on her previous employment and not on her actual income after finishing work ?

Her contributions are outstanding because she didn't pay them at the time, nor did she receive benefits that include NI credits.

Merce said:

Is it the responsibility of a retiree to pay NI contributions after finishing work when receiving an employment pension ?

Yes.

RachDCimm

After having checked my record and pension forecast it states that I cannot improve on my forecast  and the amount I will receive is the most I can get, 
I've been working since 1988 and missed 1 year (2016 - 2017)  due to redundancy and didn't claim job seekers as I had a good redundancy package.
To make up that year it would be £ 824.20 but if I cannot improve on what I will be getting is it worth paying this amount? 
Thanks

MikeyPGT

RachDCimm said:

After having checked my record and pension forecast it states that I cannot improve on my forecast  and the amount I will receive is the most I can get, 
I've been working since 1988 and missed 1 year (2016 - 2017)  due to redundancy and didn't claim job seekers as I had a good redundancy package.
To make up that year it would be £ 824.20 but if I cannot improve on what I will be getting is it worth paying this amount? 
Thanks

Simple answer has to be NO!  If you are scheduled to get the full pension then why would you?

molerat

If your forecast has only one amount quoted, in both the big green box and the text below, with the statement

£221.20 is the most you can get
You cannot improve your forecast any more

then there is no point paying for that year as it would achieve nothing other than marginally reduce the national debt.