National insurance contributions

THIS ARTICLE COULD SAVE SOME OF YOU THOUSANDS OF POUNDS.

For those of you who have retired early, but do not have a full contributions record, look at this, if you have grandchildren for whom you care for on occasions. You can even look after them at a distance by phone or video call.


This is the way of filling back years at no cost to you. As quoted in an earlier post my brother in law used it successfully recently. He is now attempting to get refunds on bought years before I made him aware of this scheme. I will update this post when he gets a reply. We will become grandparents in June but I don’t think a child in Sydney would qualify!

Davy
Interesting.
Think it is worth calling out a specific part of that article....
".....In many cases that family member will be a grandparent, but the scheme covers a long list of other family members such as aunts and uncles.

For this reason, although the scheme is informally known as a system of ‘grandparents credits’, the official title is the ‘specified adult childcare credit’."


so NOT specific to grandchildren.
 
When, for health reasons, I had to stop working quite a few years ago in my early 60s the NI folks asked for just over £300 to update my pension thingies, so now in my mid 70s I get the grand total of £176 + a bit Which is far more than I need to survive
Some folk drink and smoke more than that in a week. 🤔
 
My pension forecast shows I have contributed for 49 yrs but am still needing to contribute for two further years to get the full forecast pension. :(
 
I’ve checked my records as above and have 4yrs that show not full, when you add the weeks of these for up they total 70, can I take it this is what they do, so in theory another one and a half years?
 
My pension forecast shows I have contributed for 49 yrs but am still needing to contribute for two further years to get the full forecast pension. :(
Contributed 49 FULL years? Or just 49 years?
 
I’ve checked my records as above and have 4yrs that show not full, when you add the weeks of these for up they total 70, can I take it this is what they do, so in theory another one and a half years?
Seems a non-FULL year doesnt count at all.
 
Get a forecast, every body is different depending on whether you have been contracted out.I finished work at 57.I had the 35 years,but I was still short because of being contracted out.I had a conversation with someone who told me what contributions I needed to pay to get the maximum pension.I paid four years worth,justshort of £3000 , I calculated I will get the money back in 3 years, good value.
 
lots of work pensions opt out of the govt pensions.
i know several people that have been surprised that they dont get full state pension.
some are police ,it seems their police pension opted out of the state system.
some have been police for most of their working life.
yes the police works pension is good , but amazingly how many expected a state pension as well.
 
There’s a government pension advice line and believe it or not they’re very helpful!

I recently checked my contributions history and needed to top up two years. There were a number of years available for me to top up and the advice guy worked out which two years would be the most economical for me to pay up.
If you’ve still a good number of years to go, it might be worth becoming self employed, cheap contributions and you only have to show very minimal earnings.
Conversely, for someone who has already paid up enough years you can still have the burden of paying NI which won’t necessarily result in a higher pension. Again, it might be worth being self employed to keep excess NI contributions low for your remaining working life.

Lastly. If you defer taking your pension once you reach pensionable age, your future pension payments will increase by 5% for each year you don’t take your pension.
 
There’s a government pension advice line and believe it or not they’re very helpful!
As this, phone them up, they don't bite.
If you need extra contributions then you might want to think about a part time job, or self employment for a few years.
Gf is fed up that she needs to pay £800/900 per year as she has has many years contracted out, whereas my final years are class 2 which is just over £100 per year, also GF will not pay for one of the years being asked as it is a part year and only gives her a few pence per year.
Another thing to think about, for last couple of years I've voluntarily paid class 2 NI, this last year it's paid back(and then some) as I've been on 'sick pay' which I wouldn't have got otherwise.
 
As this, phone them up, they don't bite.
If you need extra contributions then you might want to think about a part time job, or self employment for a few years.
Gf is fed up that she needs to pay £800/900 per year as she has has many years contracted out, whereas my final years are class 2 which is just over £100 per year, also GF will not pay for one of the years being asked as it is a part year and only gives her a few pence per year.
Another thing to think about, for last couple of years I've voluntarily paid class 2 NI, this last year it's paid back(and then some) as I've been on 'sick pay' which I wouldn't have got otherwise.
So if you pay Class 2 NI, you are entiled to claim sickness benefit (like SSP?) even if you are self-employed? not heard of that. have you more info or a link to info?
 
So if you pay Class 2 NI, you are entiled to claim sickness benefit (like SSP?) even if you are self-employed? not heard of that. have you more info or a link to info?
It all changed a year or two ago, I hadn't known this and had to make a claim which was backdated two months(the max they allow), at the moment I get £148 every two weeks, this lasts for up to 1 year, mine runs out in a few weeks but NI is still credited until I'm deemed fit for week, fingers crossed that will be soon as I hope to be able to walk unaided soon.
 
It all changed a year or two ago, I hadn't known this and had to make a claim which was backdated two months(the max they allow), at the moment I get £148 every two weeks, this lasts for up to 1 year, mine runs out in a few weeks but NI is still credited until I'm deemed fit for week, fingers crossed that will be soon as I hope to be able to walk unaided soon.
I just had a browse ... Called "ESA". I have not heard of that before.

Good luck and hopefully you won't be eligible any longer very soon for the best of reasons (y)
 
Contributed 49 FULL years? Or just 49 years?
Got that wrong! Contributed 46 years, one isn't full and looking to claim on that as looked after grandson a lot that year. Have to contribute another two full years to get full pension. So compared with 35 years.....:unsure:
 
Been on the phone to HMRC today (1 hour 40 mins!) to sort out my records - and I got some info that might be useful for people on this thread....

I had a couple of "Year is not full" years which I thought were not right. Turns out for one of them my NI payment had not been assigned, so an internal request has been made to correct that so it shows as a "Full year". The other one I thought I had made the payment but I didn't actually do so. The system only took an amount for Gift Aid Payments and not for NI, so that "Year is not full" was right :(

When I checked about making good that year (and last year also) I found something interesting ....
Once the tax year is gone, the amount that WAS quoted to contribute goes up. Only by a few pounds (based on RPI maybe?) but once it has gone up, it DOES NOT go up again. So for me to get a Full Year in 2018-19, I need to make a payment. But the amount required to be paid is fixed and I have upto the 5th April 2025 to make that payment.
And for 2019-20, the amount is fixed again and is due by 5th April 2026.

So worth while checking what is needed and working out your payments based on how long you have to make good what number of years. i.e. in MY case, if I made these two payments now, I would have the full 39 years and don't NEED to make any more until I hit pension age in quite a few years still - but maybe in the next few years I will end up HAVING to make mandatory contributions rather than voluntary?
So could be worth me holding back until 2025 & 2026 in case I don't need to make good these previous years? (makes sense? hopefully the way I typed it does!).
as usual, YMMV, but thought it worth mentioning.
 
Got that wrong! Contributed 46 years, one isn't full and looking to claim on that as looked after grandson a lot that year. Have to contribute another two full years to get full pension. So compared with 35 years.....:unsure:
I would make a call to NI (spent half this morning with HMRC and NI!) - with 45 full years, no more should be needed to get the 39 required (35 is old pension. 39 is the requirement).
 
I just had a browse ... Called "ESA". I have not heard of that before.

Good luck and hopefully you won't be eligible any longer very soon for the best of reasons (y)
Just remembered whilst out on my afternoon walk/shuffle, yes it's 'new style' ESA, IIRC came about due to self employed having to pay a minimum of class 2 NI plus extra for higher earnings (class 4?).
Whilst I could give up work entirely, I do enjoy my work and I'm in control of just how much I do, and hope to continue for a few years.
 
I worked overseas on contract for many years and therefore had no contributions. After the first time I asked about contributions they always sent me a letter stating how many weeks I was short of contributions for the previous year. I paid Class 3 contributions to fill the years contributions. So for anyone self employed I would recommend bearing this in mind, it is important.
 
Anyone who was contracted out due to a company pension, will not get the full £700.80 4 weekly pension. They are affected by COPE (contracted out pension equivalent) I now receive £610 due to being contracted out in the fire service .
I am not complaining I did pay a reduced contribution, just trying to offer this.
info. Also there is no option available to buy a larger pension using class 3 contributions. This is only available if you missed years for various reasons.
 
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Anyone who was contracted out due to a company pension, will not get the full £700.80 4 weekly pension. They are affected by COPE (contracted out pension equivalent) I now receive £610 due to being contracted out in the fire service .
I am not complaining I did pay a reduced contribution, just trying to offer this info.
It was the same with a lot of big firms, at our retirement seminars they said we needed 35 years of NI they did not mention that some of our years were contracted out.
For example I did 40 years with the same firm but still needed another 6 extra years.
 

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