UK Pension - extending the top-up contribution deadline - Have I made the 5 April cut-off deadline?

[soundofsilver]

Thanks very much for this. Using your bank transfer formula above, I could just go ahead and pay tomorrow and be in time for the 5 April 2025 deadline. In terms of payment, apparently HRMC doesn't care where the money comes from, as long as I use the correct reference for those paying from abroad. However, if the result of my CF83 application is that I actually only need to pay class 2, then I'd be wasting a lot of money over 16 years' of back payments.

I called DWP FPC today and after a 30 minute wait was put through to someone who wasn’t a pensions advisor, rather just someone who took my name, DOB, NI number and Japan phone number and put me in the call-back queue. He confirmed it would take up to 8 weeks for a pensions advisor to get back to me, and they would send me a text message one day beforehand to confirm when they were calling.

He also confirmed that even if they call back after the deadline (which is what will happen), I would be fine to pay back payments all the way to 2006. He also said that I need to speak to FPC first before submitted a CF83 form (although I've done that already to timestamp before the deadline). So it would seem that even if you are able to reach FPC through on the phone at the moment, they aren’t able to help you anyway so it's probably best to just wait for the call back.

At this point, it seems I should be safe so I am going to wait for the call back and not pay. Some risk, but let's see... thanks everyone. I'll update what happens.

Thanks for the update above on your call with the FPC. They basically said the same to me, but reassuring to hear it confirmed by someone else. I also couldn't remember what they said about the text messages, so good to be reminded of that! I'd be very surprised if we were both screwed after this, so I'm hopeful!

[beanhead]

They are really backed up. 1 to 2 years, according to some reports.
As long as you have submitted the CF83 by the deadline, you will be fine.

[jane doe]

I wonder if "FPS" and "FPC" are the same thing? Is that part of HMRC or part of the DWP? I was also calling (+44 191 218 3600) on the 4th and I'm not sure which of these I got through to. In my case, I actually sent my application to pay Class 2 in March 2023, following the instructions I saw here on the Forum (thanks!) I also thought it might help my chances to send a cheque to cover all the backpayable years (ie 2006-2023), But when I followed up with a call a couple of months later, and they told me they had no record of my application, and to allow around 18 months for mine to be processed. If they actually had received it. Japan Post's tracking confirmed it had actually arrived, so I hoped that the unopened package was just sitting pretty in a mountain with other hopefuls in some HMRC basement.

No change ever registered on my account on the Government Gateway site.

Then a few weeks ago, I got a boilerplate email saying I had up to 5 April to pay Class 3. No acknowledgement that they had actually ever got my application with the CF83 form and the cheque. I wanted to chase them up, but was in the middle of a house move, medical issues etc. and left it to last week. I decided to phone, but first double checked my bank statements to make sure it hadn't been cashed, and was shocked to see they had actually banked the money a couple of weeks after I sent the cheque! Seems they opened the package, got their hands on the dosh, and then tossed my application on the post room floor. Causing me to have to launch an investigation with my bank.

In the meantime, following the advice someone gave on here, I also requested a callback as a kind of backstop, in case I couldn't get through. Like the rest of you, it seems like this keeps open your option to backpay to 2006, but seeing is believing, isn't it? I also understand that it might take them 8 weeks to do so.

Of course, I also kept on trying to call them on Friday 4th April. I finally got through on the phone to HMRC (I was in a queue for an hour by the way), I was told another department would call me back within 48 hours (probably because I explained about the cheque having been cashed, but no money showing on my online contribution record). But surprise surprise, they didn't call. Last week the wait times were insane. Then on Friday evening,while I was on hold, I got an email from a different department (DWP IPC Review and Recon Team) telling me I could pay Class 2.
Still worried about the fate of the cheque for 14 years of payments I originally sent, I called again, managed to get through to a live person, and they explained that my money "had arrived but was sitting in financials". Whatever that means.

So what I understand is that if you transfer money without a reference, the risk is that it might get lost in the works somewhere, but it seems that "sitting in financials" means that it is registered in your name, but is not yet allocated to particular years, until someone processes your application. So if you did make a payment before getting an offical decision on whether you can pay Class 2 or can only qualify for Class 3, that is the technical jargon they will probably use.
The other thing to be aware of if you are speaking to them, is that HMRC decides whether you qualify for Class 2 or Class 3, and then they allocate the money to particular years. It is only after this that it will show up on your contribution record.
But then it is the Department of Work and Pensions, DWP, who later calculate how much pension you will eventually receive. So it might be a two or three stage process.

A final thing that happened, is that because two years passed since my application I still owed for 2023-2024. I paid for these using phone banking from my UK account, and gave the reference which the person at HMRC told me (National Insurance no. + IC + surname + initial of first name). My bank didn't want to accept the payment, as they claimed that the reference had to start with II (letter i's) and wanted me to call HMRC again to check. Given the phone lines were jammed, I insisted that I wanted to follow what the person at HMRC had told me, and the bank agreed to go ahead, but at my own risk. I will now have to ring HMRC again to check, and who knows when I will get through. So I am not clear if that recent payment has gone through, and will have to keep checking on Government Gateway to see if the original payments have been allocated to my 2006-2023 record.

By the way -
the HMRC number was +44 191 203 7010,
I think the DWP Review and Recon team number was +44 191 218 7777

Hope this helps

[RetireJapan]

It's incredible how difficult they made this process (and how much extra work they made for staff).

So glad I mostly get to deal with Japanese bureaucracy.

[beanhead]

In my case, I actually sent my application to pay Class 2 in March 2023, following the instructions I saw here on the Forum (thanks!) I also thought it might help my chances to send a cheque to cover all the backpayable years (ie 2006-2023)

What a pain the neck!

Without wanting to be too critical, what advice did you read that suggested that you should blindly send a cheque before the amounts were confirmed?

[jane doe]

In my case, I actually sent my application to pay Class 2 in March 2023, following the instructions I saw here on the Forum (thanks!) I also thought it might help my chances to send a cheque to cover all the backpayable years (ie 2006-2023)

What a pain the neck!

Without wanting to be too critical, what advice did you read that suggested that you should blindly send a cheque before the amounts were confirmed?

I didn't. I took a gamble, because I was coming up against the then deadline to backdate payments to 2006. I mailed the application and the crossed cheque by registered post, made out to HMRC. I reasoned that the worst that could happen is that it would be disregarded. Japan Post confirmed the exact date and time the application was delivered, so I also figured that this would protect against it going "astray", and would give me some protection if it did.

I figured that a really overloaded system, as it was, might just accept me for Class 2 contributions, as that would be the simplest way to process the application. I won't ever know for sure, but it does seem the fact they had already banked the money two years before but not notified me or ever really processed my application, meant that they were left a bit with egg on their faces, so the easiest thing to get rid of me was to accept me for Class 2 contributions. Also by banking the payment as soon as they got my application, they made sure that at least several years between 2006 and 2023 were registered as paid before the (first) deadline.

So there's no way of knowing whether the gamble paid off, but seeing how things worked out, and I have saved over ten thousand quid, and now have 24 years of contributions, I'm glad I did it that way.