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

molerat

35 years is of absolutely no relevance for anyone born prior to this century.  If the magic 35 years had applied to you then your pension would have been the full £230.25, not even 1p short.  Anyone with a pre 2016 NI history needs as many as it takes dependent on personal circumstances, contracting out being the major factor in needing more years which you obviously were at some point, and reports on here show that number to be anywhere between around 28 and 50. Your magic number seems likely to have been 36 years so you need to stop focussing on the 35 years.

Did you pay self employed class 2 for any of those now part filled years ?  I doubt DWP will come up with anything useful as they provide a pension based on HMRC NI records so that is where the attention needs to be focussed.  As I said previously your NI record will be clear where there are gaps.  You must know which years you topped up and any not full year which shows some voluntary contributions will likely be one they have reduced.  The 3 years available to fill will be because of the 6 year rule and if they have  reduced one of the earlier years you would most likely be able to fill that on submission of a complaint.  You need to push HMRC on the reason for the removal of credits and to do this you need to get beyond first level CS, a complaint or then getting your MP or Steve Webb involved would likely be the best way forward.

Noopin

It occurred to me that they couldn’t revoke my voluntary contributions, so any partials that still contained voluntary contributions will be the ones that I made up to full years.  These years might also have some “credits” remaining, that weren’t removed.
Simple arithmetic tells me how many were missing and, therefore, removed; the buy-back cost indicates that it’s class3 rates.

QrizB has pretty much nailed it - the available weeks to create three more full years total 48, at a cost of £852, ie.class3 (17.75).  Those are the three that are currently available, the fourth looks as though it was 18/19, now unreachable but with my voluntary contribution of £250 sitting in it, achieving nothing.

DRS1

Well it is nice to see you take some notice of what people have been saying to you.

May I suggest that you pay attention to @molerat's post and follow his suggestion about making a complaint. If you are not sure what to say post a draft on here and I am sure people will help.

QrizB

As molerat has said above, there's a fair chance that making a complaint to HMRC will let you fill 18/19 too. But you will need to make a complaint regarding HMRC having given you prices for those years back in 2024, which you paid in good faith, and now having changed their minds.

Noopin

My mistake, I didn’t refresh earlier, so missed Molerat’s measured contribution.  I seem, finally, to have begun to get my head around things.

I’m certain now that I aimed for 35 years and it’s dumb luck that got me so close - a few pence below the maximum made no difference to me.  How do/did people know how many years to complete if it could be anywhere in a wide range?

It did seem odd that I was so close to the max but not bang on.

We’ll see what the DWP letter has to say, although this seems to be an HMRC matter; I’d imagined that reconciling records and removing credits was the sort of thing would’ve come up before.

If it comes to a formal complaint, it’ll be on the basis that I was only informed when it was a fait accompli, it’s been 16 months since my pension was confirmed and begun, my payment has been reduced significantly, some of my voluntary contributions are sitting impotently, and my options for restoring the reduced amount have been compromised, etc.

jem16

Noopin said:

My mistake, I didn’t refresh earlier, so missed Molerat’s measured contribution.  I seem, finally, to have begun to get my head around things.

I’m certain now that I aimed for 35 years and it’s dumb luck that got me so close - a few pence below the maximum made no difference to me.  How do/did people know how many years to complete if it could be anywhere in a wide range?

They know/knew by getting a state pension forecast. 

QrizB

Noopin said:

How do/did people know how many years to complete if it could be anywhere in a wide range?

To build on jem16's comment, if you've not yet reached State Pension age you can go to:

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

... and it will give you a snapshot of your state pension status. I don't think the page will work for you, though, as you're already receiving your pension.

The page includes how much State pension you're already entitled to, how much extra you can accrue, and how many more years you need to add to get there.

It will also indicate whether you have recently missed years that you can buy.

Mine looks something like this:

Different people will get slightly different versions of that page, depending on their situation.

There's also a link from that page to one where you can view a summary of your NI history.

Eldi_Dos

@Noopin

Hate to add to the gloom but if DWP have reduced your pension because they believe there has been a overpayment, I would imagine their system will kick in and try and recover that overpayment.
Better to be forewarned incase a unwelcome letter drops through the letterbox.

Noopin

I think I got away with that because the letter advising me what has happened, without further explanation, did say that I wouldn’t be expected to repay the amounts that are now classed as overpayments for the past 16 months.  The difference between the previous and newly-adjusted pension comes to roughly £1875 in that time, which is a sizeable amount.

They’d be, shall we say, keen for me to repay that if it was in any way my error or oversight; which reassures me that, whilst they might not have done anything wrong, they’ve certainly not handled or processed it properly, to the extent that I’ve lost out.  

Noopin

Either they’re extremely inefficient at updating things or they’ve had a change of heart, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be the latter.
Today, I’ve received £919.56, the amount I’ve had every month, equating to 229.89 pw.
I was promised a letter by DWP, when I phoned them, though I’m not holding my breath for any useful clarification.
So, it’s sit tight until it does reduce or make a complaint now, in direct response to the content of their letter.  Albeit, the letter was from DWP, announcing that it was HMRC’s removal of credits.