NI Top-up. What Now? Advice Please

Solstice

I followed ML's advice to check my NI contributions and found 3 full and 1 partial year missing. The info said that I could not pay online. I duly tried to phone the DWP (don't laugh) and then filled in the return call form in mid-March. On 16 April I received a text saying the DWP would phone me between 0800 and 1800 on the 17th April. I made sure I was in a decent coverage area, rebooted my phone, got my questions and info together and sat at home waiting for the mythical call all day long. I had no missed calls. No call came.

Now I am very concerned that the DWP will say that they tried to contact me, but failed and I have missed the 5 April deadline for topping up. Any advice gratefully received.

TIA

Marcon

Solstice said:

I followed ML's advice to check my NI contributions and found 3 full and 1 partial year missing. The info said that I could not pay online. I duly tried to phone the DWP (don't laugh) and then filled in the return call form in mid-March. On 16 April I received a text saying the DWP would phone me between 0800 and 1800 on the 17th April. I made sure I was in a decent coverage area, rebooted my phone, got my questions and info together and sat at home waiting for the mythical call all day long. I had no missed calls. No call came.

Now I am very concerned that the DWP will say that they tried to contact me, but failed and I have missed the 5 April deadline for topping up. Any advice gratefully received.

TIA

Take a screenshot of that text, and a screenshot of your phone's call history for 17 April, which will show evidence of all the calls to your number during that day.

Then wait. I haven't a clue how long is 'sensible' before following up, possibly using the formal complaints mechanism unless anyone has any better suggestions?

DRS1

First others on here have said that DWP will try to call you three times so keep the phone handy.

Second have you checked that you need the missing years?  Does your forecast say how many years you need to get the full amount of state pension?  Can you get those years without the ones that are missing?  Will you? (eg do you plan to stop work before SPA?)

Third are the missing years old or new years?  That is are they still showing as years you can fill when you log in to your forecast?  If they are fillable still (and if you need to fill them) you may find that you can now fill them online.  I am sure I got a message saying I could not fill years online before April but when I last checked suddenly I could fill them online (after answering a few questions).