Confused about forecast

Sarahspangles

mxh said:

A bit of a rhetorical question, as I can't expect you to know, but why would it take only 1 month to reconcile 22/23, but 6 months+ for 23/24?

It’s the same for my OH who stopped working during 2022/23. He’s on PAYE for his pension but there are now no NI transactions to trigger an update. Possibly when his tax for 2023/24 is assessed/adjusted his NI will update too.

molerat

And you need to get a move on.  Martin already dropped the first "April is coming" bomb on his show this week and no doubt will again tonight.  Those phone lines will start getting choked again and this April it is real !

Silvertabby

molerat said:

And you need to get a move on.  Martin already dropped the first "April is coming" bomb on his show this week and no doubt will again tonight.  Those phone lines will start getting choked again and this April it is real !

Can't you just hear the screams of 'but the phones were always busy - the date needs to be put back!'

I've read more than one post from people who intend leaving it to the wire, just to gain as much savings interest as possible.

pinnks

Have those people actually done the maths?  Unless you are paying a serious number of years at Class 3, each month's extra interest, even at 5%, is about £3.50 per NI year.  WOW!!!

mxh

molerat said:

If the years purchased are showing as full in your NI record then your forecast will have updated to show the effect on your pension within a matter of hours.  If it has stayed the same then those years, as explained, have not added to your pension and you need to get them reallocated.

I logged in and checked my forecast again today - and finally it has changed to show the estimate as at "5 April 2024" - ie 6 months AFTER I paid the extra 4 years that it told me I'd need to get a full pension.

However the 4 extra years that I paid were allocated to unfilled years pre 2016, and as you suggested would be the case, my pension forecast has not changed. It still says I need to pay a further 4 years to get the full pension.

This really is a bit of a con - "pay 4 more years to get a full pension", they said. So I did - and they took my money and gave me nothing for it in return. 

What's the easiest way to get these payments reallocated to post 2016? Is there a method of contacting them other than phone, or do you have to actually talk to someone there?

molerat

You could write a letter but that will likely take around 6 months before anyone looks at it.  Calling is by far the best way, call dead on 8am and likely you will get through pretty quickly.  https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/national-insurance-enquiries-for-employees-and-individuals

It's not a "con", it is simply a case of understanding how particular NI years will affect your pension.

How did you decide on those particular years - did you ask advice ?

How did you pay - get a code from HMRC or write a letter with a cheque ?

The answers to those may help to decide which angle you take to fix this problem.

mxh

molerat said:

It's not a "con", it is simply a case of understanding how particular NI years will affect your pension.

How did you decide on those particular years - did you ask advice ?

How did you pay - get a code from HMRC or write a letter with a cheque ?

The answers to those may help to decide which angle you take to fix this problem.

Shouldn't they tell you how any payments may (or may not) affect your pension? Rather than just saying "Forecast if you contribute another 4 years before 5 April 2033 - £221.20 a week" (which is the maximum).

I had every year from '87 to 2010 marked as 'Full Year'. I didn't ask for the payment I made to be allocated to any particular years as I had no indication that filling the first 4 'empty' years (2011/12 to 2015/16) would not count towards the pension. How would I know that - it's not advertised anywhere as far as I can see.

As for how I paid, I'm pretty sure I made a bank payment using the reference made up of my NI number, surname etc - the details were on the website somewhere.

When you say "may help to decide which angle you take to fix this problem" - what different angles are available to me?

PS - thanks for your assistance with this.

molerat

As you made the decision without taking advice and paid using a "back door" method from the internet the only approach is the grovelling "I have made a silly mistake".  They have been fairly flexible on this in recent times and it is for them a fairly straight forward task.

jem16

mxh said:

molerat said:

It's not a "con", it is simply a case of understanding how particular NI years will affect your pension.

How did you decide on those particular years - did you ask advice ?

How did you pay - get a code from HMRC or write a letter with a cheque ?

The answers to those may help to decide which angle you take to fix this problem.

Shouldn't they tell you how any payments may (or may not) affect your pension? Rather than just saying "Forecast if you contribute another 4 years before 5 April 2033 - £221.20 a week" (which is the maximum).

I had every year from '87 to 2010 marked as 'Full Year'. I didn't ask for the payment I made to be allocated to any particular years as I had no indication that filling the first 4 'empty' years (2011/12 to 2015/16) would not count towards the pension. How would I know that - it's not advertised anywhere as far as I can see.

As for how I paid, I'm pretty sure I made a bank payment using the reference made up of my NI number, surname etc - the details were on the website somewhere.

When you say "may help to decide which angle you take to fix this problem" - what different angles are available to me?

PS - thanks for your assistance with this.

Are you living abroad by any chance? If so did you complete form CF83 to see if you were eligible for the cheaper Class 2 contributions?

mxh

molerat said:

As you made the decision without taking advice and paid using a "back door" method from the internet the only approach is the grovelling "I have made a silly mistake".  They have been fairly flexible on this in recent times and it is for them a fairly straight forward task.

Hang on, that's a bit harsh.

The advice was basically from Martin on this site - I looked into it and did the calculations and it made sense. Can you point me to anywhere that I should have been aware of that warns me of this 'pre-2016' issue.

And it wasn't a 'back-door' method at all - I applied to pay Class 2 contributions and this was accepted. Looking back into it, I can see I was sent an 18 digit reference number by HMRC and used that in conjunction with my NI number to make the payments following the instructions on the HMRC website - https://www.gov.uk/pay-class-2-national-insurance. What exactly is 'back door' about that?

jem16 said:

Are you living abroad by any chance? If so did you complete form CF83 to see if you were eligible for the cheaper Class 2 contributions?

Yes, I'm living abroad, and yes I completed the CF83. They replied and confirmed I was eligible and gave me an 18 digit reference to use in the payments.