Retrospective Class 2 contributions

MarkwithaK

Has anyone else been told that you can't make retrospective Class 2 payments pre-2018? Have you been able to resolve this? Or have you been forced to make Class 3 payments instead?

The long story...

I have been shuttling back and forth sporadically between DWP and HMRC for the last couple of years trying to sort out my pension. I have just turned 65 and get my pension in Jan 2027.

I have been self-employed since 1989, when I went on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme. At the time I also registered for small earnings exemption. 

During the course of all this I discovered that HMRC's computer didn't have me down as self-employed (despite me having been submitting tax returns as self-employed since 1989-90).  I had to get them to retrospectively register me as self-employed, which they did. They say they have no record of my applying for or being granted small earnings exemption. I have no evidence that I did so.

Because none of this was going to get resolved before 5 April 2025 I registered for the DWP callback, which I got on 1 July. DWP confirmed I had 15 years to fill. 
I called HMRC the same day and had a conversation with them where we calculated how much the Class 2 Contributions that I owed added up to, and which years they would be allocated to. I got a reference number and paid.

Last week I had a letter from HMRC informing me that I was wrongly advised and could not pay Class 2 contributions for tax years 2006-2007 to 2017-2018.

I have spoken to them and they tell me that I missed the deadline of 5 April 2025. I explained to them that I had been in contact with DWP and that I should be able to still make valid payments. They then told me that they can't allocate Class 2 NI payments previous to 2014-2015 "because we do not have the ability to do that".

Has anyone else had this problem? That you can't make retrospective Class 2 payments pre-2018? Have you been able to resolve this? 

Any hints, tricks, things I should say / points I should make to HMRC when I write to challenge this?

Many thanks