Voluntary Class 3 NI Contributions – How to Pay

Tom99 wrote: »

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]I would like to pay for some backdated Class 3 voluntary NI contributions.[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]It seems the only way to do this is by writing a letter to HMRC stating the years required and enclosing a cheque.[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]There does not seem to be any Form to fill in, nor any way of paying online.[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]Is this correct? [/FONT]

Be aware that if you have opted out of SERPS/S2P in the past then it might only be worth paying voluntary NICs from 6th April 2016 onwards.

Hi,

there seems to be various ways you can pay.
Hope this link helps

https://www.gov.uk/pay-voluntary-class-3-national-insurance

R

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-application-to-pay-voluntary-national-insurance-contributions-ca5603

As the OP indicates, there is an apparent reticence on HMRC's part to give people easy access to voluntary payment.

This could be for several reasons:
- you might have enough contributory years already so won't benefit from extra payments;
- it will cost jobs if they just told you how to work the reference out yourself;
- it might cause security issues if they told you what the reference was composed of (tho I think not telling people poses a greater risk.

So, to that end, I'm gonna tell you, based on a sample of one (me!) how I think the references are 'constructed'. If others have reference numbers in their possession, they might wanna help me confirm this theory, so that we can then all confidently 'construct' references, freeing us from the delay of written requests or lengthy telephone queuing.

Just one caveat: I still don't know what the last digit means ... but maybe we can work this out together.

Okay, here goes:

NI Reference Parts

---

Here's a typical 18-digit ref number with the digits replaced with characters:

PP£££££NNNNNNLLLLQ

Parts with the same character represent the same type of information. The length of that info is represented by the length of that character repeat.

Let's break it down:

PP
----

The first two digits are a code for the Period you wish to pay. Periods are:

whole year: PP = 60

£££££

---

The next five digits encode the £amount you want to pay. There are two ways of constructing this:

amount < £1000: £££££ = 52 x weekly_nic_in_pence
amount >= £1000: £££££ = 99999

As an eg, if weekly nics = £14.10:
£14.10 = 1410p
52 x 1410 = 73320
so:
£££££ = 73320

NNNNNN

---

The next six digits encode the digits in your NI Number in pairs.

I'm gonna break NNNNNN into 3 pairs:

NN NN NN

and name them

NN1 NN2 NN3

If your NI number is AB 11 22 33 C,

NN1 = 33
NN2 = 11
NN3 = 22

So the completed NNNNNN section will be:

NNNNNN = 331122

So they basically switch the number pairs around a bit.

LLLL

---

The next 4 digits again come from your NI number, but this time they encode the first two Letters.

Again, I'll split the 4 digits into two pairs:

LL1 LL2

For a NI number AB 11 22 33 C:

LL1 relates to A
LL2 relates to B

The letters are represented by their count in the alphabet, padded with a '0' for numbers less than 9.

So A=01, B=02, C=03 .... X=26

So for NI number AB 11 22 33 C:

LL1 = 01 (ie A)
LL2 = 02 (ie

And:

LLLL = 0102

Q
--

Honestly? Q is a single digit, but I have no idea what it encodes. Answers on a postcard ...

Bringing it altogether

---

Taking our example :
NI number = AB 11 22 33 C
Yearly class 3 nic = £733.20

Reference :
PP £££££ NNNNNN LLLL Q =
60 73320 331122 0102 ?

Where '?' is still a mystery.

PS: remember to say if you concur with this assessment so that we can have more confidence in this approach.