National Insurance Contribution top up query

molerat

Northwind36 said:

I want to pay for my wife to make up for two years' NIC. I have used the Govt. website and I know how much to pay but it will not let me pay on line. I cannot talk to the Future Pension Centre or anyone else. Can I make a Bank Transfer?

Not without a payment reference.  You need to either try the FPC first thing in the morning as soon as they are open - some people have reported successful contact - or book a call back.  The other option is to send a cheque in the post but that could take up to a year before it was looked at, some depts are reporting dealing with mail from April 2024. Are you certain those 2 years will add to her pension ?

wiseonesomeofthetime

Like many (possibly) I was contracted-out for a period in my employment lifetime and so now have a shortfall of four years in my NI record.

I checked in March how much it would cost me to purchase 1-4 years to fill the gap and screenshot the results, with the intention of purchasing a couple of years when my regular saver matures next month (May 2025).

The figure I was quoted was £1,596 and it said that option 2 was available until April 2027. Great, or so I thought.

Logged in today to double-check whether I could purchase using a credit card, only to find that, although "Option 2" is still available until April 2027, the cost has risen by £234 to £1,830.
Whilst the forecast weekly pension has also increased by £8pw, it just goes to show that (somehow) I should have paid before the new tax year.

Just for the information of anyone else considering this really.

Kev58

I realise this thread has been going sometime.
My experience of trying to complete an incomplete year of contributions has been particularly frustrating. I am already receiving my pension but found I could complete a missing year for the comparatively reasonable figure of £480

After going round in circles on the HMRC website trying to follow links to make Voluntary Class 3 Contributions, I decided it could not be done on line.

On deciding to phone up and negotiate a >30 minute queue, I eventually spoke to someone on the 3rd attempt.  This was in February this year.

The person I spoke to took my details and said they would send me a letter with details of how to make a payment.

Six weeks later I got the letter, which apart from the information from the Gov.uk site had another phone number.  6 weeks to send a phone number by post!! Why on earth could the 2nd number not be put on the website or at least sent in an email?

Anyway I finally paid my outstanding contribution over the phone on April 3rd and was informed that
It could take a month or so to be included in the pension, but would be backdated.

Three months later I had heard nothing, and my NI contributions had not been updated. And so began an endless series of phone calls and waiting in queues as I was passed backwards and forwards between HMRC and DWP.

On 24 September, I noticed my NI record had been updated, but the year in question 22/23 was not showing as complete.  So I raised a formal complaint to HMRC.

On 29th September I got an email saying my complaint had been dealt with and the contributions had been ‘allocated’ which means the year is now marked as complete. So it took HMRC 6 months plus a formal complaint to update the record.

This morning I had hoped that my Pension would contain a small increase, and a larger amount of back pay. No change.

So a phone call to DWP initially got the response that they could not see any change to my NI contributions.  But a 2nd call and a 2nd 40 min wait to talk to the ‘Changes’ section yielded the information that they could see the HMRC had update my record, but it might take up to six months from the date of allocation (29 Sept) to review the pension and make any extra payment!!

If I had known it would take this long and require this much chasing at my end, I would not have bothered in the first place.

The information on this elsewhere in MSE and the link posted in a previous conversation  suggest that the whole exercise is possible online.  I would be interested if anybody has actually managed to do that or even make the contribution and get the Pension Increase in a reasonable period of time.
Thanks

 

dreaming

I have been receiving my pension since 2021 but had gaps so I paid on the 1st August and expected a long wait as several people had suggested. However, after receiving my state pension on 3rd October as expected at the "old" rate I also received a bank credit on the 13th October from DWP. On checking with DWP it was confirmed that this was the backdated amount of pension owed and that I would be receiving the new rate from 31st October (as this is my double payment month). I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth a process it has been as I know others have not had the same experience.