Apply for class 3 contributions UK pension

[taneandy]

So I've gone through what seems to be the standard, slow procedure for making UK pension contributions:
1) apply to make contributions
2) receive reply several months later saying I'd been accepted for class 2
3) transfer money to make up shortfall for unpaid years
4) phone up to get those payments correctly allocated

I was surprisingly told that the correctly allocated payments should be reflected on government gateway by the next morning.
Unsurprisingly that has not actually happened!
I assume that it may just be a case of waiting for several months just like other stages of the process.
Does anyone know how regularly and when government gateway accounts are updated?
I'm assuming it must happen at least once a year.

[bryanc]

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.

i saw your prev posts on this-very helpful^--however as I understand it you did have a full time job in the UK though didnt you?
thanks

[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.

i saw your prev posts on this-very helpful^--however as I understand it you did have a full time job in the UK though didnt you?
thanks

Just a one year contract after uni then came to Japan. Didn’t meet the criteria, which is what I think you are asking. But a friend of mine was accepted without meeting the criteria so that spurred me on to appeal the decision.

[bryanc]

cheers..
you had a full one yr contract though which i donthave....may just accept the class 3

[northSaver]

Has anyone noticed how long the post from HMRC is taking these days? I got a letter yesterday dated 14th February. Over two months late! And one earlier in the year that took about six weeks. They were postmarked in Malta, for some reason. Are they sending them by ship? Or are they getting stuck in Malta? It's pretty annoying.

[Gareth]

cheers..
you had a full one yr contract though which i donthave....may just accept the class 3

It was spread over two tax years though so it doesn’t count on my record for anything

No harm in appealing and trying to get class 2.

Good luck!

[Gareth]

Has anyone noticed how long the post from HMRC is taking these days? I got a letter yesterday dated 14th February. Over two months late! And one earlier in the year that took about six weeks. They were postmarked in Malta, for some reason. Are they sending them by ship? Or are they getting stuck in Malta? It's pretty annoying.

Same. Received a letter a few days ago similarly dated. Didn’t check the postmark but have had them from the Netherlands before. Guess they outsource printing and sending documents out. Airmail between the U.K. and Japan is knackered at the moment seemingly…

[northSaver]

I'd like to pay the 2021-22 contributions for Class 2, but don't want to wait another two months for the invoice to arrive. So could anyone in a similar position please confirm that the amount due is £158.60 (£3.05 x 52)? I'll pay by bank transfer from a UK account.

(I got this number from a DD letter they sent in February 2021 outlining the payment schedule for 2021-22. I have of course told them several times that I don't want to pay by DD, but they send it anyway )

Edit 1: Looking back at my invoices (DD and lump sum), I'm not sure I can rely on the DD ones. They seem to differ from the lump sum ones by a few pounds. So maybe I'll just wait for the lump sum invoice, to be safe. It will probably arrive in June.

Edit 2: The official website says £3.05 per week for 2021-22 Class 2, so maybe I'll pay what I said at the top before the letter arrives, after all.

[Gareth]

I'd like to pay the 2021-22 contributions for Class 2, but don't want to wait another two months for the invoice to arrive. So could anyone in a similar position please confirm that the amount due is £158.60 (£3.05 x 52)? I'll pay by bank transfer from a UK account.

(I got this number from a DD letter they sent in February 2021 outlining the payment schedule for 2021-22. I have of course told them several times that I don't want to pay by DD, but they send it anyway )

Edit 1: Looking back at my invoices (DD and lump sum), I'm not sure I can rely on the DD ones. They seem to differ from the lump sum ones by a few pounds. So maybe I'll just wait for the lump sum invoice, to be safe. It will probably arrive in June.

Edit 2: The official website says £3.05 per week for 2021-22 Class 2, so maybe I'll pay what I said at the top before the letter arrives, after all.

The letter I have shows the total of the monthly Direct Debts and the total of the half-yearly Direct Debits to both add up to 158.60.

I pay the half-yearly one. So for 2021-2022, 79.30 was taken out in Jan 2022 and 79.30 will be taken out in July 2022. When the second one came out of my bank last year, my online NIC record was updated within a few days.

May I ask why you don't want to do a direct debit if you already have a UK bank account? It saves so much hassle.

[northSaver]

May I ask why you don't want to do a direct debit if you already have a UK bank account? It saves so much hassle.

Thanks for the info Gareth. Regarding DD, I did try setting it up with them years ago but it didn't work. I forget why now, but after that I gave up with it. Also:
1. There's never much in my UK current account normally, so I'd rather have more control of the payment process and avoid it failing due to lack of funds.
2. I'm almost near the end of my contributions, maybe a couple more years before I can receive a full pension. I want the option of stopping it easily when that happens. DD would be slightly more troublesome in this regard.
3. The pension numbers get updated on the website fairly quickly after a lump sum payment too... but admittedly not as fast as a few days!