Has UC removed my NI credits a year into my pension?

Noopin

My partner and I had a UC account from early days, a dozen years ago.  This made sense as I was self-employed throughout that period.
As I approached 66 years old at the start of 2024, I diligently checked and topped up my NI years until I had 35 full years.  Only around £2k altogether, covering about 8 shortfall years.

I had planned to defer for a year and keep working but, as soon as I informed UC, they stopped our claim on the grounds that I couldn’t say no to the pension while continuing to receive UC payments, and receipt of SP defeated the whole claim; even though I had been able to earn modest sums, up to about £1500pcm without denting the UC payment.  I’d imagined that the SP would be added into the calculation, along with the increments for part-time carer and limited capacity for work (my partner), in the same way as my earnings had been.

It was decided that I had to repay the three UC payments we received since the pension start date and that has been taken from my partner’s PIP.  Meanwhile, the full SP was arriving, covering the period starting on my birthday.

Yesterday, I received a letter telling me that my pension was being reduced as “HMRC have recently reconciled your records and have changed the calculation of your pension…” and “HMRC has removed several credits affecting the amounts…”

In effect, it’s reduced 4 full years to partial and dropped the pension from 229 to 203pw.  Today, I’ve spoken to DWP five times (cut off three times while they went to check something) and HMRC twice.  Eventually, the nearest that anyone would commit to an explanation was a suspicion that UC had removed some of the NI credits that they’d provided.

HMRC and I were looking at my NI record and I recognised a couple of the years that I knew I’d made up, now showing as incomplete.  The call-handler said he could see that eg.20/21 had had credits removed fairly recently.

My original questions were - who instigated the removals, and why; where did the money go to; is there any way to get back to 35 years?

It’s 16 months since I thought this was all settled and I was confident that I’d done the right thing to achieve 35 full years - I’m very unhappy that it’s come out of the blue and no-one can provide definitive answers.  I can see years where I know I paid the difference but, since the clawback, that’s now “wasted” money in terms of creating a full year because they’ve fallen below the threshold.

DWP tentatively suggested that I can still regain 3 partial years showing as “available” for voluntary payments.  But I paid up two of those at the start of 2024, and I’d still be only on 34 years.  

I feel as though I’ve fallen through a crack in the system, because the record showed 35 full years after the pension payments began.

Many thanks for getting through this, I can’t help thinking there must be others…

Ayr_Rage

35 years for a full SP is only 100% relevant for those born after the year 2000.

It may be coincidental that this is the number of years you required but your gov.uk information will have shown the exact information.

DRS1

DWP tentatively suggested that I can still regain 3 partial years showing as “available” for voluntary payments.  But I paid up two of those at the start of 2024, and I’d still be only on 34 years.  

If you do that how much will your pension go up to?  Don't focus on the years focus on the amount.

Hopefully someone will be along who knows why you might have been docked those NI credits.  You are sure it was to do with the UC and not somehow connected to you being self employed?  Some people on here who are self employed say they have not had years credited because they weren't properly registered as self employed. 

QrizB

Noopin said:

.mI had planned to defer for a year and keep working but, as soon as I informed UC, they stopped our claim on the grounds that I couldn’t say no to the pension

As I understand it, UC isn't payable once you reach state pension age. You claim your state pension and move to a different benefits structure.

Noopin said:

In effect, it’s reduced 4 full years to partial and dropped the pension from 229 to 203pw.  

The currrent "full" state pension is £230.25 a week. If you were receiving £229 you were already short, possibly through not having enough full NI years.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-and-pension-rates-2025-to-2026/benefit-and-pension-rates-2025-to-2026#state-pension

Each post-2016 year is worth £6.58 so yes, it looks as though you've had four years disallowed.

Do you know which years they are, and how much each is short by?

If DWP have removed credits for full years where you were in receipt of UC, you need DWP to reinstate them.

molerat

I can't see how a change in your UC entitlement resulting in a repayment at SP age has any bearing on the removal of NI credits from previous years.  IMO you are entitled to a full explanation of the reasons for this from HMRC - they are the ones who maintain the record and will know who instigated the removal, maybe not at front line CS level though.  If a reasonable answer is not forthcoming it would be worth involving your MP.  If the removal of those credits is justified then there should be no reason why you should not be entitled to make voluntary payments for those years whenever they were.

Noopin

It was definitely 35 full years to qualify for maximum pension and lately I’ve been receiving £919.56 per 4 weeks, ie £229.89 pw.

I can regain three partial years between 2019-2022 for around £840; it’s somewhat galling because I’d already got two of those up to full years.  That would take me to 34 years, which would give me 34/35 of £229.89 ie.£223, which is a loss of £338 each year.  Better than the current position, which will lose £1368p.a. or £13k over 10 years.

It might well not be related to UC, that was HMRC speculating (in other words, making it a DWP issue); I respectfully suggested that he should’ve been able to answer that question.  Whoever it was, it shouldn’t have taken more than a year to get to this point.  If I’d known where things stood as I approached 66, or in the first year following that, I could have replaced all four required years.  All I had to go on was the NI record, which categorically tells you which, and how many, years are full and how much the others are short.  When it confirmed 35, I felt the satisfaction of having done something useful and worthwhile; when the pension started, it was the full amount and I never looked at it again.

To be clear, because I only paid for the precise amount to make an eligible year, even a small credit reversal by HMRC would drop the year out, and the money I’d used to “buy back” a few weeks would count for nothing in that year.