Apply for class 3 contributions UK pension

[taneandy]

I was recently accepted for class 2.
Again, the waiting time was about 14 weeks.

I left for Japan straight after university but my penultimate year at university was spend working in industry meaning that I had one full year of NI contributions in addition to three non-working years. I assume that was significant in helping me to be accepted for class 2.
It seems like the interpretation of "working in the UK immediately before leaving" is actually more flexible than "immediately" would suggest.

[Gareth]

presuming not worth appealing!???

I got rejected for class 2 and got rejected for class 3 as well. I appealed to the MP in charge of HMRC and now I’m paying class 2. So definitely worth it.

[bryanc]

any idea how i should go about appealing? i have worked in the uk but only for a very short time as i came directly out of uni to japan(had a summer job though) issue is also i dont remember exactly timing etc of the part time jobs..

[RetireJapan]

I got rejected for Class 2 then reapplied for Class 3 and was accepted. Same situation, never worked in the UK (came here straight from uni).

[KCLenny]

so got rejected for the class 2 -letter stated
may i explain that to be entitled to class 2 have to be normally employed or self employed in uk and employed or self employed overseas in period applying for .examination of nat insurance records shows sparseNI record and would not be consider as normally employed whilst in uk,

can apply for class 3 rate though...

presuming not worth appealing!???

did take exactly 14 weeks!

I got this exact same letter.
But I was employed in the uk directly before leaving. And I am employed in Japan have been since leaving. So not sure I understand what they mean by “normally employed”.
If they mean full time, then yeah fair enough. But I was employed basically up until the day I left in part time, as well as being in Uni for the 3 years prior to leaving.

[beanhead]

I got this exact same letter.
But I was employed in the uk directly before leaving. And I am employed in Japan have been since leaving. So not sure I understand what they mean by “normally employed”.
If they mean full time, then yeah fair enough. But I was employed basically up until the day I left in part time, as well as being in Uni for the 3 years prior to leaving.

University is irrelevant as studying at Uni does not generate NI contributions.
The conditions from NI38 are below. It looks like they do define the employment requirement as full-time, rather than part-time.

You can pay Class 2 NICs if you’re employed or self-employed abroad and if you satisfy the following conditions.
1. You’ve lived in the UK for a continuous 3-year period at any time before the period for which NICs are to be paid*, or
2. Before going abroad you paid a set amount in NICs for
3 years or more (this will be checked when you ask to pay Class 2 NICs*), and
3. In addition to conditions 1 and 2, you must also, immediately before going abroad, have been ordinarily an employed or self-employed earner in the UK.

As we know, this set amount of NICs can include the 3 years they used to give for free to those in full-time education at ages of 16,17, and 18.
For the younger readers, this may not apply to you since they ditched this granting of free contributions .

[KCLenny]

I got this exact same letter.
But I was employed in the uk directly before leaving. And I am employed in Japan have been since leaving. So not sure I understand what they mean by “normally employed”.
If they mean full time, then yeah fair enough. But I was employed basically up until the day I left in part time, as well as being in Uni for the 3 years prior to leaving.

University is irrelevant as studying at Uni does not generate NI contributions.
The conditions from NI38 are below. It looks like they do define the employment requirement as full-time, rather than part-time.

You can pay Class 2 NICs if you’re employed or self-employed abroad and if you satisfy the following conditions.
1. You’ve lived in the UK for a continuous 3-year period at any time before the period for which NICs are to be paid*, or
2. Before going abroad you paid a set amount in NICs for
3 years or more (this will be checked when you ask to pay Class 2 NICs*), and
3. In addition to conditions 1 and 2, you must also, immediately before going abroad, have been ordinarily an employed or self-employed earner in the UK.

As we know, this set amount of NICs can include the 3 years they used to give for free to those in full-time education at ages of 16,17, and 18.
For the younger readers, this may not apply to you since they ditched this granting of free contributions .

Oh so basically I can’t get class 2 at all then?
That’s unfortunately. I really can’t afford class 3. I know £800 a year isn’t much for most but it’s just a little too much for me at the moment on top of all my bills here.
I’m gonna try to back back 3 years that I have partially already paid though so that I can at least make it up to the 10 years minimum

[bryanc]

im also mulling over whether to appeal or not..i had part time jobs but also worked for a few weeks after uni before coming to japan..
not sure if that qualifies as full time...
is there any point appealing ? not sure...

against that,is it correct to say there is no hurry to accept the class 3 offer as ,as long as i pay by march 2023-i can make all the back contributions i would be eligible for even if i paid now or in a yr?

[jonnyd]

A quick update and also big thanks to everyone who helped me out!!!
I went from having 0 pension credits to now having 15 years since 2006! So now I will be able to keep paying in and get a full UK state pension yeah!
I may even be able to retire in Bulgaria or the Phillipines on it and live in a studio apartment and eat rice every day if I'm lucky.
So I had to pay class 3 and 12.000 pounds in one go. After paying it took 2 months to properly allocate the credits and they sent printed out proof to my UK address. The whole process took from last April I think as I didn't even have an NI number. A long slog, but worth it in the end.

[beanhead]

The whole process took from last April I think as I didn't even have an NI number. A long slog, but worth it in the end.

Congratulations. Persistence pays off!