OT Catch up NI Contributions

If you did tax returns for the relevant years, surprised it didn't want you to pay as part of that

Are you within 6 months of retirement?

No, I am born 1961 so not yet at State Pension Age, but have been winding down over several years and I think Class 2 not demanded of me due to low annual profits. I need to make voluntary contributions. My circumstances are not unusual.

TW

You can only top up going back 5 or 6 years.

When the gov gateway service was introduced I immediately used it and discovered that for reasons I (nor they) can explain I have an incomplete record for 1985-1986 (when i was ay Uni). Nothing to be done now.

Of late I've been claiming carers allowance for SWMBO, and that automatically generates NI payments.

After I was made redundant in 2017 and cared for my mother, I had a gap before I started claiming CA. That had to be paid on the phone (about £80 IIRC) speaking to a human. You don't get any receipt. Except your record is then updated (and obviously you have tha bank transaction_.

Did you go via here:

Theo

I have a partial year around that time, though I was either a student, or employed the whole time, I also have a year when I put in something like 14 months contributions.

in my case, it doesn't matter, I've got enough full years since then, for the full state pension, my current NI contributions benefit the chancellor but not me. Can't complain my contracted out of SERPS pot did well ...

I took voluntary redundancy and retired a couple of years before the official date before getting the state pension. The Govermnent site gave me an indication of the state pension I would get including the extra state pension. I also got an indication of how much I would get by paying NI up to my state retirement date. Although the difference wasn't life changing paying the the extra NI and I broke even in 4 years and continue to get a little extra for life.

I have been all through all those pages. The whole scheme is hopelessly complicated, plus disorganised, plus they seem to have a massive backlog.

When you call the number you get a long series of messages saying stuff like: - If you have booked a call-back and we have not called you back please don't wait to be connected unless you are within 6 months of retirement age and have already been given a 14 digit reference code for the year

Until quite recently you could go back a lot further and this fact was picked up by pensions experts i places like Ireland, Oz an Nz who realised that it was free money for those citizenss of those countries who had worked in the UK many years ago but had not paid at least 10 years NI contribs (this denies them any UK state pension).

The DWP was apparently overwhelmed with payments coming in from around the world and caused monumental delays to UK residents simply trying to fill in gaps.

If you haven't already done so, request a BR19 pension forecast from the DWP.

It can be requested online but has to be manually prepared and posted to you.

This will tell you exactly how many actual years full contributions that the DWP have on record for you. It will also show you what your expected pension will be and if you were ever contracted out of SERPS then it will show you what your contracted-out-deduction is.

A lot of voluntary payments in the past (a few hundred from me; a few thousand from some) turned out to be pointless when the required number of years of contributions for a full pension was reduced (from 44 years to 30 I think). Of course no refunds.

And if you request a BR19 pension forecast the DWP will calculate your benefit using the old and the new rules and you are supposed to get the higher of the two answers, so those voluntary contributions will mostly be beneficial.

NI is just tax with a cuddly name. There are still people who think that once they have reached 35 years NI contributions, they should somehow be exempt from paying any more NI. No.

Not the BR19, just the online checker, which for me says

Your forecast is £230.25 a week is not a guarantee and is based on the current law is based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2025 does not include any increase due to inflation £230.25 is the most you can get You cannot improve your forecast any more.

in 1982-83 I have 83 weeks credit in 1983-84 I have 25 weeks credit so 108 weeks credit covering 2 years, but only one of them counts.

'No' if earnings over £12,570.