Confused re DWP advice

Pantile1

I am nearly 70 years of age, born in 1955 and get a state pension since the age of 66 it is not full payment due to some years of not paying full NI contributions..  I went online to check my missing/short payment years and noticed that 2009/20 was short £348.70 other years  2010/11 up to 2019/2020 were all short £824.20 and 2020/2021 £795.60.  I phoned the helpline and asked if I paid 1 x £348.70+£795.80 what difference would it make  and they said I would get a letter to say which years I could pay back to bring my pension up to full and when it arrived it only gave 2015/16  to 2020/21.  When I queried this the answer I got was the figures online were incorrect and I could only choose those dates on the letter.  I thought you could pay back any of the last 13 years until Saturday 5th 2025.  Their answer was a straight forward NO.

My present pension is £192.97 so the shortfall is relatively small - I though by paying £348.70 by Saturday it would lift it a small amount but DWP say I need to pay over £4900.  The figures just don't add up.  I've given up as I really can't understand why you can choose to pay for 1 or 2 years with the lowest missing NI years.

Sorry its long winded but I don't know what to do and running out of time.

p00hsticks

Assuming that you meant to say 2009/10 rather than 2009/20 in your post, the answer will be that buying any years prior to the introduction of the new State Pension on April 6th 2016 will not increase your pension - you would be wasting your money buying that 2009/10 year, or any others prior to 2016-17. 

Each post 2016 year you buy will increase your State Pension by £6.32 up to the maximum of £221.20
Note that the opportunity to buy 2016/17 and 2017/18 closes at the end of the week, but the more recent years will still be available to buy after that deadline, although the prices will rise.

Pantile1

p00hsticks said:

Assuming that you meant to say 2009/10 rather than 2009/20 in your post, the answer will be that buying any years prior to the introduction of the new State Pension on April 6th 2016 will not increase your pension - you would be wasting your money buying that 2009/10 year, or any others prior to 2016-17. 

Each post 2016 year you buy will increase your State Pension by £6.32 up to the maximum of £221.20
Note that the opportunity to buy 2016/17 and 2017/18 closes at the end of the week, but the more recent years will still be available to buy after that deadline, although the prices will rise.

Thank you very much for your prompt reply that now makes perfect sense - if only the person on the other end of the telephone had explained it that way in the first place.

molerat

One slight discrepancy there - you said the letter came back stating you could buy 2015-16, that is inconsistent with not being able to pay 2009-10, they should either both be payable or neither would.  I strongly suspect 2015-16 was not on the list.

Pantile1

I've registered for a call back as advised by Martin Lewis the other day just to follow this up - will update as and when that happens.  Thanks everyone.

1957DfurdPensionist

Pantile1 said:

I've registered for a call back as advised by Martin Lewis the other day just to follow this up - will update as and when that happens.  Thanks everyone.

@Pantile1 - thanks, yes please do let us know.  I am a year or two younger and my COPE has been "calculated" at over eighty quid and resulted in an "old rules" based pension qote that would in 2024/25 have translated to around £172pw without VC's.  So I am past SPa - but I too still want to pay 2015-16 and expect despite nay-sayers to get some small improvement from doing so. Part of my reasoning is that I have identified discrepancies in pension forecasts I downloaded in late 2016 and early 2020 which would appear to be caused by different treatments in the two forecasts of missing contributions for 2015-16. In short, the 2016 forecast now looks wrong, and no-one explained why the 2020 forecast might be justified.

Judged by the growing number of discrepancies/anomalies/inconsistent treatments now emerging from a deep read of MSE forum and elsewhere, I don't intend to automatically trust what remains of my life to any info I get from DWP. 

After the fiasco of the last few days where those of us who logged in to see our NI record and the prices for buying back old remaining gaps saw the deadline extended into May 2025, is it surprising that confusion reigns amongst some of us with logical brains?  As of some minutes past 4pm today, when they finally let us inspect our online records again, we now see the online published May 2025 promise of the past few days glossed over, disappeared,  and supposedly reneged upon, so who can blame any of us for our scepticism?

QrizB

If you can persuade them to let you pay a pre-2019 year the Chancellor will be happy to take your money, regardless of whether it helps your pension.

1957DfurdPensionist

QrizB said:

If you can persuade them to let you pay a pre-2019 year the Chancellor will be happy to take your money, regardless of whether it helps your pension.

@QrizB - I too have generated thirty odd MWh since 2012 so have some understanding of your position on the happiness with one's lot scale, but is that last comment your attempt at humour in between successive pots of popcorn, or are our 2015/16 concerns being pre-judged here by some higher power?

Pantile1

Sorry about the delay in replying but during the week of the 28th April to 2nd May I had two separate calls from the DWP asking me to confirm my date of birth and NI number.  Being the cautious type I stated that the information was already submitted and they both said that another specialised agent would be in touch but nothing so far.  Can't be too careful when someone asks for that information.

SevenOfNine

Born 1954. My statement showed 48 fully paid years (contracted out for some of it & included 16 years of Home Protection Responsibility), 1 incomplete year 18/19 & one 'not available' 19/20 (I'd left work)

I wrote in June, August & November with no response, finally they replied late November after some 23 weeks! If I'd been phoning I'd have noted number, time, date & name of person I spoke to.

Decided to just top up the part filled year of 18/19 for about £830 to get an extra £6 or so a week. It wasn't worth topping up a lot more to get just a few more pounds....I'd rather blow it on a holiday!