Cut in NI, more hours to qualify for SP ?

buyhighselllow

I had sort of calculated I needed to work about 20 weeks in the new financial year to qualify for my final SP year. Am I interpreting things correctly if I assume the reduction in NI paid in April will mean I will have to assume I need to work more than this or has the qualifying amount needed changed ? 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

buyhighselllow said:

I had sort of calculated I needed to work about 20 weeks in the new financial year to qualify for my final SP year. Am I interpreting things correctly if I assume the reduction in NI paid in April will mean I will have to assume I need to work more than this or has the qualifying amount needed changed ? 

You don't need to pay NI to add a qualifying year.

The LEL, which remains unchanged at £123/week is the key factor.

buyhighselllow

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

buyhighselllow said:

I had sort of calculated I needed to work about 20 weeks in the new financial year to qualify for my final SP year. Am I interpreting things correctly if I assume the reduction in NI paid in April will mean I will have to assume I need to work more than this or has the qualifying amount needed changed ? 

You don't need to pay NI to add a qualifying year.

The LEL, which remains unchanged at £123/week is the key factor.

So a gross pay before deductions of eg £500 per week for 13 weeks would cover it ( 123 x 52=6396)  and qualify for the additional year ?

QrizB

buyhighselllow said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

buyhighselllow said:

I had sort of calculated I needed to work about 20 weeks in the new financial year to qualify for my final SP year. Am I interpreting things correctly if I assume the reduction in NI paid in April will mean I will have to assume I need to work more than this or has the qualifying amount needed changed ? 

You don't need to pay NI to add a qualifying year.

The LEL, which remains unchanged at £123/week is the key factor.

So a gross pay before deductions of eg £500 per week for 13 weeks would cover it ( 123 x 52=6396)  and qualify for the additional year ?

I don't think it works that way.
Why don't you share the calculation you did to show that you needed to work for 20 weeks, and we can then see what's changed.

buyhighselllow

QrizB said:

buyhighselllow said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

buyhighselllow said:

I had sort of calculated I needed to work about 20 weeks in the new financial year to qualify for my final SP year. Am I interpreting things correctly if I assume the reduction in NI paid in April will mean I will have to assume I need to work more than this or has the qualifying amount needed changed ? 

You don't need to pay NI to add a qualifying year.

The LEL, which remains unchanged at £123/week is the key factor.

So a gross pay before deductions of eg £500 per week for 13 weeks would cover it ( 123 x 52=6396)  and qualify for the additional year ?

I don't think it works that way.
Why don't you share the calculation you did to show that you needed to work for 20 weeks, and we can then see what's changed.

This was written when the LEL was £118 by a former Pensions Minister. As it is now £123 I am therefore assuming that when I worked c 13 weeks earning £6500 ( or 26 weeks earning £250 etc, as long as each week I work I exceed the LEL) I would qualify for a full year of SP ?

"For a year of your working life to be a ‘qualifying year’ towards your state pension, you have to have paid (or been credited) with NI contributions on earnings equal to 52 times the weekly lower earnings limit.

As noted above, periods when you are earning below the lower earnings limit do not count towards this target.

But the good news is that weeks (or months) when you are earning more than the lower earnings limit help to make up for weeks (or months) when you were not earning (or earning below the LEL).

To give a simple example, suppose that you have a year in which you do no paid work for 26 weeks and then you do 26 weeks at an earnings level of £236 – double the lower earnings limit.

For the year as a whole, you have qualifying earnings of 52 times the LEL and this is therefore a qualifying year.

In the example given in the question, we can ignore the periods when the individual earned a token amount, and focus on the five months where pay was £2,000.

In each of those months, the pay was above the monthly LEL and therefore the full amount counts towards the annual target.

As five lots of £2,000 totals £10,000 for the year, and this is in excess of 52 times the weekly LEL (£6,136) this would count as a qualifying year "

I

QrizB

buyhighselllow said:

QrizB said:

I don't think it works that way.
Why don't you share the calculation you did to show that you needed to work for 20 weeks, and we can then see what's changed.

This was written when the LEL was £118 by a former Pensions Minister. As it is now £123 I am therefore assuming that when I worked c 13 weeks earning £6500 ( or 26 weeks earning £250 etc, as long as each week I work I exceed the LEL) I would qualify for a full year of SP?

Will you be earning more than the Upper Earnings Limit in any of those weeks?

buyhighselllow

QrizB said:

buyhighselllow said:

QrizB said:

I don't think it works that way.
Why don't you share the calculation you did to show that you needed to work for 20 weeks, and we can then see what's changed.

This was written when the LEL was £118 by a former Pensions Minister. As it is now £123 I am therefore assuming that when I worked c 13 weeks earning £6500 ( or 26 weeks earning £250 etc, as long as each week I work I exceed the LEL) I would qualify for a full year of SP?

Will you be earning more than the Upper Earnings Limit in any of those weeks?

c £350-£700 per week gross depending on how many days I did

QrizB

buyhighselllow said:

QrizB said:

buyhighselllow said:

QrizB said:

I don't think it works that way.
Why don't you share the calculation you did to show that you needed to work for 20 weeks, and we can then see what's changed.

This was written when the LEL was £118 by a former Pensions Minister. As it is now £123 I am therefore assuming that when I worked c 13 weeks earning £6500 ( or 26 weeks earning £250 etc, as long as each week I work I exceed the LEL) I would qualify for a full year of SP?

Will you be earning more than the Upper Earnings Limit in any of those weeks?

c £350-£700 per week gross depending on how many days I did

Ok, the UEL is close to £1k now. So long as you are above the LEL and below the UEL every week, I think your calculation aill work.

Suhusa

I got an entire year credited for working 6 weeks - I made enough money to get above 52 times the weekly LEL in those six weeks. But because the (monthly) UEL is a bit under 8 times the (monthly) LEL you need two months to actually be credited the full year.

buyhighselllow

Its a dilemma.
I have basically retired but being 1 year short means I have to work minimum 9 weeks to earn that final year. I really have had enough, so I guess the alternative is buying the extra year next year.

So could I just pay weekly NI class 3 contributions from April 6th for 12 months ?