Can both the DWP and HMRC award NI Credits?

singhini

Ive just checked my NI record on my government gateway and its showing i have a full year towards my state pension but its only showing 41 weeks of NI credits. (i was expecting it to show 52 weeks).

The reason i was expecting it to show 52 weeks of credits is because i was both unemployed and then later working in that tax year.

i was initially signing-on and that explains the 41 weeks from the job centre but for the remaining 11 weeks i was in part-time employment working (i was earning above the LEL but below the PT) and so would have been credited with NI contributions without actually paying them. So why don't those 11 weeks also show on my record?

i'm assuming its because the Government Gateway is a DWP platform and so only shows their 41 weeks. While the other 11 weeks must have been credits from HMRC (as i was working) but since the Government Gateway is not a HMRC platform it doesn't show.

Q1 = Am i right to assume both DWP and HMRC are able to award NI Credits?

Q2 = Have i assumed correctly with regards to the 41 weeks showing and the 11 weeks not showing in my assumption above? 

Any help in explaining why my record looks the way it does would be much appreciated.

huckster

1) yes
2) I thought that credits from DWP are never that up to date.  Also someone recently commented that most employers collect NI from employees and only pay this to HMRC once every 3 months. So it might be your employers have not yet paid HMRC the money for the credits to be registered.

sheramber

What tax year are you talking about? 

singhini

sheramber said:

What tax year are you talking about? 

2022/2023

2023/2024 it just says "full year"  nothing else  (FYI i worked all year earning above LEL but below PT in that year)

2024/2025 "full year"  (it shows 35 weeks NI credits) however i also worked April to July earning above LEL but below PT)

So;
Looking at it closer, for all three tax years i have "full year" along with DWP NI Credits but HMRC credits have never been added/mentioned.

This could cause me (and others a problem) as to be awarded Contribution based JSA you need to show minimum 50 weeks credits Redundancy | Low Incomes Tax Reform Group

Example: claim contributory benefits

If you make your claim for benefit in 2025, it is the LEL for 2023/24 or 2022/23 which counts. The LEL for 2023/24 was £123 and the LEL for 2022/23 was £123. So to satisfy the first condition you would have had to have earned either at least £3,198, over at least 26 weeks in 2022/23 or at least £3,198, over at least 26 weeks in 2023/24. The 26 weeks do not need to be consecutive, but weeks in which you earned less than the LEL do not count towards the total.

To satisfy the second condition you would have had to have paid contributions on earnings of £6,150 in 2022/23 and on earnings of £6,150 in 2023/24. Credits wise, you would have needed to have received a Class 1 NIC credit for at least 50 weeks in each of the relevant tax years.

sheramber

Did you get payslips for p/t employment?

Does that employment show on your personal tax account?

singhini

Yes 
Yes
Employer details and earnings are all correct. 

In theory i have 52 weeks of credits for each of those years
However only the DWP credits are showing. 
The HMRC credits don't show but must have been taken into account since each year is showing as "full year"

Newcad

Have you asked them to send a written NI record by post rather than just online?

https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

singhini

Newcad said:

Have you asked them to send a written NI record by post rather than just online?

https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

Yes i did back in 2024 and it shows exactly the same info as online (they sent me my whole record upto tax year 2022/2023).

ive concluded the government gateway info just doesn't show the HMRC info (only DWP info). 

In terms of state pension calculations it is correct (it shows each year as a qualifying full year).
In terms of making a claim for JSA, the DWP must use a different database to the government gateway info to calculate an award (because it doesn't show any HMRC info/credits). 

molerat

NI earned from working simply shows a full year or the amount required to fill that year. You also see the amount of NI paid.  There is no real relationship between the 2 - full year with £5 paid, full year with £1000 paid or full year with £0 paid.  Any work related crediting is done by HMRC, DWP will inform HMRC of how many weeks they are giving.  You can get credits from different DWP departments, for one year I have 105 weeks and I was only unemployed for 6 months !

singhini

molerat said:

NI earned from working simply shows a full year, you also see the amount of NI paid.  There is no real relationship between the 2 - full year with £5 paid, full year with £1000 paid or full year with £0 paid.

Correct, i agree (and that's why my record shows "full year" each time those scenarios have happened).

My question is in the instance i need to make a claim for JSA, where do they look (which database) do they base their assessment on (they can't base it on the information on the government gateway as it only shows the info from DWP).

singhini

to be awarded JSA i need to satisfy the following two conditions:

• You must have paid, or be treated as having paid, at least 26 weeks contributions on earnings at or above the lower earnings limit (LEL) in one of the last two complete tax years immediately before the relevant benefit year (which is usually the calendar year when you meet the entitlement conditions and submit your claim). This condition can be relaxed in certain situations.
• You must have paid contributions or received NIC credits on earnings of at least 50 times the LEL in each of the two complete tax years immediately before the relevant benefit year.

So if DWP where to look at my government gateway record for say tax year 2022/2023 it shows 41 weeks credits (this is below the 50 weeks needed for a successful claim so they would reject my claim).
However the truth is i have 52 weeks credits for that year (41 from DWP + 11 from HMRC since i worked and earnt between the LEL and PT