Is there an age limit for paying voluntary NI contributions please?

molerat

More details needed.  Precisely which years are unpaid / gaps ?  If there are gaps post 2006-07 then she should be able to top them up, with only 28 years total then at least 2 from 06-07 to 15-16 should be eligible if available.  The on line NI record will state if a year is available to pay.  My NI record still shows payable gaps back to 2009-10 (although they are not viable) and I reached retirement in 2019.

p00hsticks

MarcusHutch said:

p00hsticks said:

MarcusHutch said:

p00hsticks said:

MarcusHutch said:

But... they wrote that she cannot pay voluntary NI contributions. [Presumably as she has now reached retirement age?]

It won't be because she has reached state Pension Age - as TadleyBaggie says, there is no age limit to paying voluntary contributions. However, there is a limit to the number of years you can buy - currently from 2006-2007 up until the tax year before your reach State Pension Age. And not all of those years will necessarily result in an increased State Pension Amount - it wil ldepend on the individuals record.

So I think it more likely that DWP / the Pension Service are probably saying that she has no gaps in her NI record available  to be purchased (or possibly that she has but that they would not result in an increased State Pension).  

Thanks. There are gap years (can't recall how many - we wrote to them 9 months ago!) & her current forecast is less than the full SP, which implies (to me at least) that paying voluntary NI contributions *should* increase her SP. .

Unforrtunately as she is past SPA she will no longer be able to access her Pension Forecast, but if you post up her what NI years she has full, where the gaps are and what she is currently receiving someone should be able to which years, if any, are worth buying. 

Thanks for that. We saved her pension forecast. 
My wife has 28 years of full contributions, 2 years to contribute before the deadline (April 2025?) & 20 years when she did not contribute enough. 
She hasn't received any pension payment yet.

What payment is quoted in the forecast and what date is the forecast up to ?

MarcusHutch

p00hsticks said:

MarcusHutch said:

p00hsticks said:

MarcusHutch said:

p00hsticks said:

MarcusHutch said:

But... they wrote that she cannot pay voluntary NI contributions. [Presumably as she has now reached retirement age?]

It won't be because she has reached state Pension Age - as TadleyBaggie says, there is no age limit to paying voluntary contributions. However, there is a limit to the number of years you can buy - currently from 2006-2007 up until the tax year before your reach State Pension Age. And not all of those years will necessarily result in an increased State Pension Amount - it wil ldepend on the individuals record.

So I think it more likely that DWP / the Pension Service are probably saying that she has no gaps in her NI record available  to be purchased (or possibly that she has but that they would not result in an increased State Pension).  

Thanks. There are gap years (can't recall how many - we wrote to them 9 months ago!) & her current forecast is less than the full SP, which implies (to me at least) that paying voluntary NI contributions *should* increase her SP. .

Unforrtunately as she is past SPA she will no longer be able to access her Pension Forecast, but if you post up her what NI years she has full, where the gaps are and what she is currently receiving someone should be able to which years, if any, are worth buying. 

Thanks for that. We saved her pension forecast. 
My wife has 28 years of full contributions, 2 years to contribute before the deadline (April 2025?) & 20 years when she did not contribute enough. 
She hasn't received any pension payment yet.

What payment is quoted in the forecast and what date is the forecast up to ?

Hi, the forecast payment is £166.62/wk or £724.50/mth or £8,693.99 pa.
Forecast at 5.4.22.

The report says she can improve her forecast up to a maximum of £203.85 / wk.

MarcusHutch

molerat said:

More details needed.  Precisely which years are unpaid / gaps ?  If there are gaps post 2006-07 then she should be able to top them up, with only 28 years total then at least 2 from 06-07 to 15-16 should be eligible if available.  The on line NI record will state if a year is available to pay.  My NI record still shows payable gaps back to 2009-10 (although they are not viable) and I reached retirement in 2019.

Thanks for the questions....

2006-07 all the way through to 2021-22 says not full.
Hope that assists you

molerat

Assuming that £166.62 was the amount actually accrued and not the forecast amount then that will now be £180.80 so she needs another 7 years to reach the full amount - the final 7th year will only add around £2.50 - and should definitely be eligible to do that. 

When did she reach 66 ?  

Was she in a contracted out pension scheme ?

Are any of those gaps part filled ?

It would have been far easier to do this prior to retirement but we are past that so she need to speak to the Pension Service to sort out which years she can buy.  That will be a long winded process, likely taking around a year to finalise as they only reply by post.

https://www.gov.uk/contact-pension-service

The other option is to write a cheque to cover the 6 post 2016 years and maybe 1 pre 2016 as that option cannot fail to add value and wait for the system to sort it out. Still long winded as the recalculation of the pension is a manual process.

https://www.gov.uk/pay-voluntary-class-3-national-insurance/by-post

MarcusHutch

molerat said:

Assuming that £166.62 was the amount actually accrued and not the forecast amount then that will now be £180.80 so she needs another 7 years to reach the full amount - the final 7th year will only add around £2.50 - and should definitely be eligible to do that. 

When did she reach 66 ?  

Was she in a contracted out pension scheme ?

Are any of those gaps part filled ?

It would have been far easier to do this prior to retirement but we are past that so she need to speak to the Pension Service to sort out which years she can buy.  That will be a long winded process, likely taking around a year to finalise as they only reply by post.

The other option is to write a cheque to cover the 6 post 2016 years and maybe 1 pre 2016 as that option cannot fail to add value and wait for the system to sort it out. Still long winded as the recalculation of the pension is a manual process.

Hi again,  £166.62 was the forecast amount per her SP forecast back in 2022.

She reached 66 last September.

She contracted out for some of the time (exact period unknown - sorry) & was paying self-employed NICs for some years.

I don't think the gaps are part-filled.

We wrote to the Pension Service to ask them which years she could pay & that's when they responded that "it's too late for you to pay voluntary NICs for any tax years before 2024".

Regarding the cheque: don't we need a reference number to be able to pay that? Perhaps that is only applicable to us as we live abroad?

Thank you for your input.

MarcusHutch

Hello again folks, 

Although we wrote to the Pension Service to ask them which years of arrears my wife could pay & that's when they responded that "it's too late for you to pay voluntary NICs for any tax years before 2024", several of you have responded that she can indeed pay arrears / missing years. Is there a piece of law that you can give me regarding her entitlement to pay arrears that I can then quote to HMRC / DWP please to correct them?

Many thanks in advance.....

molerat

Perhaps that is only applicable to us as we live abroad?

That little piece of information dropped in at the last minute may have some bearing on the situation re buying back years post retirement.  I believe it has come up before, an ex-pat forum may be the best place for that discussion.

MarcusHutch

molerat said:

Perhaps that is only applicable to us as we live abroad?

That little piece of information dropped in at the last minute may have some bearing on the situation re buying back years post retirement.  I believe it has come up before, an ex-pat forum may be the best place for that discussion.

Strangely enough, the Pension Service said that *I could* pay voluntary contributions. I am 65 & not yet in receipt of my UK state pension.

molerat

MarcusHutch said:

molerat said:

Perhaps that is only applicable to us as we live abroad?

That little piece of information dropped in at the last minute may have some bearing on the situation re buying back years post retirement.  I believe it has come up before, an ex-pat forum may be the best place for that discussion.

Strangely enough, the Pension Service said that *I could* pay voluntary contributions. I am 65 & not yet in receipt of my UK state pension.

Not strange at all, you are pre-retirement.