UK Pension & Voluntary Payments Questions

[soundofsilver]

Thank you!

I was considering someting similar, to be honest. If the range is between 29 and 40 years, then paying 16 of them now would still make sense. Unless, of course, for some reason some of those years wouldn't count towards my total (which would be completely illogical, but hey, this is bureacracy).

May I ask how you actually made the payments? I.e. is there a page with bank numbers, etc.? I think I'm going to give them till around April 1 - 1 week since my first call - and then call them again. If they were able to sort it for you after a bit of pressure, maybe they can for me?

[allatsea]

May I ask how you actually made the payments? I.e. is there a page with bank numbers, etc.? I think I'm going to give them till around April 1 - 1 week since my first call - and then call them again. If they were able to sort it for you after a bit of pressure, maybe they can for me?

The last page of my letter from HMRC has a section on Paying your voluntary NICs:
Go to gov.uk and search "pay voluntary class 3 national insurance" or "pay class 2 national insurance". Not very helpful!

Here is the online or telephone bank transfer information for class 2: https://www.gov.uk/pay-class-2-national ... k-transfer

I transferred money from a UK bank account and called HMRC 6 working days later to get confirmation the money had arrived before the 5 April deadline.

You can transfer money before calling the Future Pension Centre. However, when I spoke to HMRC they said they couldn't help me unless I had already called the Future Pension Centre to confirm which tax years would increase my pension.

[Deep Blue]

This is getting some unwelcome press recently.

https://on.ft.com/3RnK7U9

The comments section is pretty angry about this amazing benefit we’re able to exploit.

[soundofsilver]

Well, I, for one, am sure that the readers of the FT NEVER take advantage of opportunities or loopholes to benefit financially...

May I ask how you actually made the payments? I.e. is there a page with bank numbers, etc.? I think I'm going to give them till around April 1 - 1 week since my first call - and then call them again. If they were able to sort it for you after a bit of pressure, maybe they can for me?

The last page of my letter from HMRC has a section on Paying your voluntary NICs:
Go to gov.uk and search "pay voluntary class 3 national insurance" or "pay class 2 national insurance". Not very helpful!

Here is the online or telephone bank transfer information for class 2: https://www.gov.uk/pay-class-2-national ... k-transfer

I transferred money from a UK bank account and called HMRC 6 working days later to get confirmation the money had arrived before the 5 April deadline.

You can transfer money before calling the Future Pension Centre. However, when I spoke to HMRC they said they couldn't help me unless I had already called the Future Pension Centre to confirm which tax years would increase my pension.

Thanks so much again! Hmm, so you paid and told them you had paid and THEN they could tell you that the payments you'd just made counted towards your pension. But they couldn't tell us this beforehand. Or at least could take them 8 weeks in my case... I am seriously considering just doing what you did as it feels like the "safer" option (obviously, this is entirely my fault if it backfires).

[RetireJapan]

This is getting some unwelcome press recently.

https://on.ft.com/3RnK7U9

The comments section is pretty angry about this amazing benefit we’re able to exploit.

And that is from Financial Times readers

Imagine what will happen once the Daily Mail gets hold of this story...

[Roger Van Zant]

This is getting some unwelcome press recently.

https://on.ft.com/3RnK7U9

The comments section is pretty angry about this amazing benefit we’re able to exploit.

And that is from Financial Times readers

Imagine what will happen once the Daily Mail gets hold of this story...

This is why I have always said to keep schtum about it.

[Deep Blue]

Martin Lewis has been banging on about non-stop, and he has a much bigger profile than you or I.