HMRC Ignoring recorded delivery letters

Mickyblueeyes69

This is regarding my Wifes Pension she currently receives £ 128 per week as the Pensions people tell me she has not paid enough NIC that is why it is so low. After many months of letters they finally said they can only go by what Inland Revenue tell them and they sent me the details of my wifes employment why it took them months to do this i dont know, The revenue in fact only allowed her credit for when she had our children. She actually worked for 10 years in London Solicitors before we had children this was is 1967-77 The letters also included the names of the companies she worked for but they have not given her any allowance for this employment. I have written HMRC on four seperate occasions two of them recorded over the last year and not even received the courtesy of a reply i also made sure my wife signed the letters i was sending to avoid any confusion but i just dont know where to go from here. I am sure my wife is getting the wrong amount as many others are but i cant even get the Revenue to acknowledge my letters let alone answer my queries. Thankyou

Marcon

Mickyblueeyes69 said:

This is regarding my Wifes Pension she currently receives £ 128 per week as the Pensions people tell me she has not paid enough NIC that is why it is so low. After many months of letters they finally said they can only go by what Inland Revenue tell them and they sent me the details of my wifes employment why it took them months to do this i dont know, The revenue in fact only allowed her credit for when she had our children. She actually worked for 10 years in London Solicitors before we had children this was is 1967-77 The letters also included the names of the companies she worked for but they have not given her any allowance for this employment. I have written HMRC on four seperate occasions two of them recorded over the last year and not even received the courtesy of a reply i also made sure my wife signed the letters i was sending to avoid any confusion but i just dont know where to go from here. I am sure my wife is getting the wrong amount as many others are but i cant even get the Revenue to acknowledge my letters let alone answer my queries. Thankyou

A Subject Access Request is rather harder to ignore. Try that route and see what it throws up: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/shortforms/form/DPU_SAR_NI?_ga=2.230026460.1544670040.1621021753-1315656139.1609178084

JGB1955

Is it possible that you wife paid the reduced rate of National Insurance for married women?  That stopped in April 1997.

DullGreyGuy

Recorded delivery letters to large organisations are just a waste of money... even being much smaller organisation RM deliver many sacks of letters a day and one or two will happen to contain SD and RD letters/small packages. A couple of sheets of paper has a list of all of the items in there and someone in the mail room signs the bottom blindly. 

Anything for named individuals (ie managers, finance etc not just agents in ops roles) gets delivered separately but anything for ops teams just gets mixed in with the general post and pushed into their queues. 

Mickyblueeyes69

Yes i can see that with the Mail i just hoped that maybe they ended up on a preferential pile but i am sure you are correct and they dont. Many thanks for the Link it is very useful as i read only yesterday somewhere that unless they receive enquiries on their official forms they will more than likely ignore them so thanks for that very useful.

BoGoF

JGB1955 said:

Is it possible that you wife paid the reduced rate of National Insurance for married women?  That stopped in April 1997.

I'd put my money on this.

OP, what address were you using?

molerat

When did she reach retirement ? April 2010 is an important date, especially so for women.

Her annual increase letter will show how the pension is made up, the basic pension is the important one as far as years is concerned, so how much is that amount ?

xylophone

She actually worked for 10 years in London Solicitors before we had children this was is 1967-77

When exactly did your wife reach SPA?

When did you get married?

Did she opt for married women's stamp at that stage?

Did she ever work outside the home after your children were born?

If so, was she still on MWS?

Looking at your wife's state pension letter for 23/24, what exactly does it show?

Is it just basic SP (how much) and Grad?

Marcon

JGB1955 said:

Is it possible that you wife paid the reduced rate of National Insurance for married women?  That stopped in April 1997.

It was not uncommon at the time for married women to do so, so that's very much a contender.

OP - if you aren't sure what the 'reduced rate' (aka 'small stamp') is all about, have a look at https://www.gov.uk/reduced-national-insurance-married-women which explains it.

Mickyblueeyes69

Firstly she only retired in 2018 at 65 and we only received a letter of the amount she would receive not how it was made up that is the reason i have been writing on and off since then. The initial pension was £103.31 per week. As far as the addresses go she has had three addresses all of which i have given to the Revenue We were married in 1972 and i dont remember her reducing NIC to a married womens allowance although that is no guarantee she didnt reduce it. But that would have been part of her employed life but they have given her Zero for that first ten years. I think my best route is to fill out the form Marcon suggested and do it on line and see if that gets any response. Thankyou

xylophone

Firstly she only retired in 2018 at 65 

Presumably born mid 1953?

She was receiving Child Benefit for a period between 1978 and 2010?

https://www.gov.uk/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp

At  6 /4/2016,  her pension would have been calculated as the higher of


NI Qualifying Years(max 30)/30 x £118.30 (Full Basic)  + (Additional State Pension - (if applicable) Deduction for Contracting Out

{NI Qualifying Years (max 35)/35 x £155.65 (Full NSP)} - (if applicable) Contracted Out Pension Equivalent.

She had one or two qualifying years from 6/4/16?

Was your wife ever a member of a contracted out pension scheme?

The full New State Pension in 2018/19 was  £168.60.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a758e27e5274a6faebebd94/derived-inherited-entitlement.pdf

• from 1977 married women and some widows could no longer ‘opt-out’ of National Insurance: those women who had already taken up the option could pay National Insurance contributions at a reduced-rate on the proviso that they remained in work. This option lapsed if a woman did not pay contributions in two consecutive tax years – over time the number of women paying the reduced-rate contributions has dropped from around 3.5 million in 1977 to around 3,000 in 2010/11. 

It is possible that your wife opted for MWS from 1972 - 77 but as you appear to be indicating that after the birth of your first child in 1977 your wife was at home for a few years, it doesn't seem likely that she would have been eligible if she returned to work.

NI was payable from age 16 - if she started paying the MWS from age 19, she maybe had only three qualifying years from pre children?

You don't mention whether or not she worked outside the home after your children were born?