National Insurance gaps

itsme83

I'm trying to boost my wife's State Pension, but can't get through to the Future Pension Centre.
When I check her NI gaps on the Gov website, the years from 2006 to 2019 show as "Year is not full", but when I click on these they all have the same message : "We are checking this year to see if it counts towards your pension. We'll update your record when this is finished, you do not need to do anything".
It has been like this since the start of the year. I know that these years won't count since she was self employed as a childminder and because she was on a low income/profit was exempt from paying NI contributions (In hindsight she should have paid voluntary Class 2 contributions).
Do you have any idea how I can sort this out so that I can pay voluntary contributions for some of these gap years?

p00hsticks

My understanding is that that message appears, if, as you indicate, a person was self- employed but did not elect to make the relevant voluntary contributions at the time. Others on this board will hopefully know what, if anything, the procedure is to now go back and make payments for those years. The Future Pension Centre is unlikely to be able to give advice in relation to those particular years as it's an HMRC issue. 

As you may already be aware, depending on how many full pre-2016 years a person already has, buying more pre-2016 years may not necessarily increase someones state pension.  

xylophone

What exactly does your wife's forecast show?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80112966/#Comment_80112966

itsme83

28 years of full contributions
5 years to contribute before 5 April 2027    [but this won't happen because she doesn't work now]
18 years when you did not contribute enough

Forecast is £192.20 a week if she continued to contribute for the remaining 5 years, but that won't happen.
£163.08 a week based on her NI record up to April 2022
The most you can improve your forecast to is £203.85 a week.

molerat

Are all those full years pre April 2016 ?

Is there any COPE amount showing, in a click link in "You've been in a contracted-out pension scheme" if there is one.

On the face of it she needs another 7 years to reach the full amount.  How many pre 2016 years will be useable depends on the answers to the above questions.

She will need to speak to HMRC and request to pay class 2 rates for those gaps.

itsme83

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, all the full years are pre-2016.
No COPE amount showing, she was never contracted-out.

xylophone

See page 6 /7 here. This was a guide produced at inception of NSP.

https://www.dpf.org.uk/explorer/files/TOPPING-UP-YOUR-STATE-PENSION-GUIDE.pdf

Later edition here

https://www.royallondon.com/siteassets/site-docs/media-centre/good-with-your-money-guides/gwymg-1b-topping-up-state-pension-2019-interactive.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions