Pension contribution 9 years. Can I add one more year from abroad?

hallelujah24

Hello everyone,

I am (sadly) a runaway Brit, currently on the continent due to the cost of living crisis. With 9 years' contribution to the state pension scheme I do not qualify for minimum state pension unless I contribute one more year to the system. This means either I return to the UK and work there one more year (unlikely as I am not native) or I pay into the system one more years' contribution and this is the point of this thread. Is this possible at all from abroad? If yes, how please?

Thank you for your time.

DE_612183

Are there any years you were in the UK but not contributing?

hallelujah24

Hi there,

This is what the NI record shows. I've been in the UK between June 2014 and May 2023. I am now based in the EU.

2024 to 2025    Your record for this year is not available yet
2023 to 2024    Full year
2022 to 2023    Full year
2021 to 2022    Full year
2020 to 2021    Full year
2019 to 2020    Full year
2018 to 2019    Full year
2017 to 2018    Full year
2016 to 2017    Full year
2015 to 2016    Full year
2014 to 2015     Full year

jem16

hallelujah24 said:

Hello everyone,

I am (sadly) a runaway Brit, currently on the continent due to the cost of living crisis. With 9 years' contribution to the state pension scheme I do not qualify for minimum state pension unless I contribute one more year to the system. This means either I return to the UK and work there one more year (unlikely as I am not native) or I pay into the system one more years' contribution and this is the point of this thread. Is this possible at all from abroad? If yes, how please?

Thank you for your time.

Assuming you are working and contributing in the EU country you’re now in, then you should be able to use their record to aggregate yours and so allow you to have a state pension from the UK without paying any more. For example if you have 9 years here and 30 years in the EU country then you would have a total of 39 years which then meets the UK minimum requirement. You would then get 9/35ths of a UK pension. 

You can also choose to pay voluntary NI to the UK and if you’re working abroad you’d get the very much cheaper Class 2 contributions. Doing that would then give you a higher UK pension at a fraction of the cost. 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-to-pay-voluntary-national-insurance-contributions-when-abroad-cf83