UK State Pension newbie

[SZQ]

Hi,

I'm glad I found this forum. Left it a bit late, now 41, but finally trying to sort out my pension(s). I have been reading all the posts here so thank you to everyone for their experiences and advice. But I'm still a little unsure how to proceed as I'm useless with matters related to finance.

Here's my background:

• (2001-2009) Graduated 2000 and started working early 2001. Worked consistently for these years. Company employee PAYE so everything should be complete for these years.
• (2009-2011) Took a year and a bit off to do some travelling, didn't work at all so paid nothing
• (2011-2016) Worked full time in Asia, never returned to the UK. Paid nothing
• (2016-2017) More travelling, mid-life crisis, paid nothing.
• (2018) Started full time job in Japan as company employee. Slightly above average salary. Everything auto-deducts from salary, inc. company pension and insurance etc.

I'm planning to live in Japan for the remainder of my life.

I created a Government Gateway account (didn't know i could do this so thanks) to check my status. It says the following
Can get state pension on 2046
Forecast £9141 a year
13 years of full contributions
27 years to contribute before 2046
12 years did not contribute enough

• (1994-95) Full year, National Insurance credits 52 weeks (school/college)
• (1995-96) Full year, National Insurance credits 52 weeks (school/college)
• (1996-97) Full year, National Insurance credits 52 weeks (school/college)
• (1997-98) Year is not full, no contributions (college/uni)
• (1998-99) Year is not full, £25 (uni + part time holiday work)
• (1999-00) Year is not full, no contributions (uni)
• (2000-01) Full year, £219, National Insurance credits 23 weeks
• (2001-02) Full year, £1357
• (2002-03) Full year, £1437
• (2003-04) Full year, £1632
• (2004-05) Full year, £1624
• (2005-06) Full year, £1821
• (2006-07) Full year, £1973
• (2007-08) Full year, £2125
• (2008-09) Full year, £2396
• (2009-10) Full year, £1129
• (2010-11) Year is not full, no contributions, pay voluntary contribution £795 by 5 April 2023
• (2011-12) Year is not full, no contributions, pay voluntary contribution £795 by 5 April 2023
• (2012-13) Year is not full, no contributions, pay voluntary contribution £795 by 5 April 2023
• (2013-14) Year is not full, no contributions, pay voluntary contribution £795 by 5 April 2023
• (2014-15) Year is not full, no contributions, pay voluntary contribution £795 by 5 April 2023
• (2015-16) Year is not full, no contributions, pay voluntary contribution £795 by 5 April 2023
• (2016-17) Year is not full, no contributions, pay voluntary contribution £795 by 5 April 2023
• (2017-18) Year is not full, no contributions, pay voluntary contribution £795 by 5 April 2023
• (2018-19) Year is not full, no contributions, pay voluntary contribution £761 by 5 April 2023
• (2019-20) Record not available

So, questions:

1. Do I need to pay for the missing years OR remaining years only?
2. Not really sure about Class 2 or 3?
3. Why were my payments when I was working so high?
4. Why are my voluntary contributions for missing years so high? In other threads figures of £11/£50 (per month?) were mentioned
5. How do I get the ball rolling if I want to start paying missing years and/or years from now on? I don't plan on making a trip to the UK in the near future.

Sorry for the long post but I thought giving as much info as possible would help. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

(Hope opening a new thread is ok despite there being many already. Otherwise Admin please feel free to move it)

[RetireJapan]

If you Google RetireJapan and UK state pension, we have about six posts that should help (especially the comments)

[Beaglehound]

You need 35 full years of contributions as it stands (no guarantee that won’t change) to get a full state pension. You have 13, meaning you will get 13/35ths of whatever the full amount is when you retire as it stands. Given you need 22 more and are 41 now, you could ignore the past years and sign up to pay from now on. It will be class 3 as you weren’t working immediately before leaving the U.K. Or you could choose to pay up the previous years, which seem to be at the prevailing class 3 rate. Since the class 3 rate will likely go up in future years, this might be slightly more cost effective. There is a form which the Retire Japan posts talk about, which you fill in and send them, before waiting for several months, whereupon HMRC will tell you what you need to do. Your U.K. payments would have been dependent on your U.K. salary at the time, no connection with the voluntary payment amount.

[SZQ]

Thank you for the replies. I've read through the other posts recently. Will read again thoroughly to get the details.

...It will be class 3 as you weren’t working immediately before leaving the U.K.

What do they mean by "immediately"? I left the UK in the middle of 2009, around a couple months after I quit my job. It took a while to prepare for my trip. I read in another post that they always quote the class 3 amount on the website so hopefully I qualify for class 2.

I'll send them an email tomorrow and maybe phone them when things start getting back to normal, hopefully.

Thanks

[Beaglehound]

Ok, I kind of misunderstood your situation regarding working immediately before leaving the UK. I would be surprised if you qualified for Class 2 tbh, given the gap between 2009 and now, but with HMRC anything is possible

I emailed them when I went through the same process a couple of years back. They took a good while to reply and just told me to fill in the form. So I would go ahead and do that if I were you.

[RetireJapan]

I concur on the form! My long problem with HMRC mistakenly stopping my payments was only fixed by... filling in the form again and sending it in. Actually talking to people on the phone line was a complete waste of time on multiple occasions

[SZQ]

This seems like it's gonna take a while then

I sent them an email. Now for the wait. I'll post an update if and when I get a response. Thanks

[adamu]

I echo the others.

Forget about emails and phone calls. Just fill out the form, and post it to them with a covering letter explaining your details.

[Moneymatters]

I echo the others.

Forget about emails and phone calls. Just fill out the form, and post it to them with a covering letter explaining your details.

Just want to add that I did just this earlier this year.

Sent the form and slightly over 2 months later I noticed they activated the Direct Debit to a UK Bank I'd provided details of.
Another week later and I had a letter back informing I'd been accepted for Class 2 and able to pay back to 2006/7.

I had worked in the UK for over 10 years immediately prior to moving to Japan. And I had been away for over 20 years before I got in touch with them.

The letter they sent was clear about being approved for Class 2. It also gave the amounts for the eligible back years and a period of 8 weeks in which to make payment for them. Although it was also clear that 8 weeks wasn't the final deadline for paying those periods. It seems the offered amount to back pay was fixed for 8 weeks.

The letter wasn't clear on exact instructions how to pay and the helpline wasn't taking queries due to Covid-19.
So I just looked online and sent payment, electronically, to the account for overseas NIC payments using a combination of my; NS number, "IC", "last name", "initial" as the reference. (As much of last name and initial as you can fit in).
https://www.gov.uk/pay-class-2-national-insurance

Follow the Pay Now link there. You'll see a choice for bank transfer. Then there will be a hidden "Overseas Payments" section that will reveal details if clicked. Honestly. This is like finding an Easter Egg on a DVD menu at this point.

Keep copies of everything you send them. It's two weeks since I made payment and no sign of my HMRC account being updated. I'm preparing myself to spend some time on the phone with them. (When I'm not busy with my new BFFs at SBI.)

Oh. Whilst they set up the Direct Debit there was no information on their letter about any schedule to take payments for future periods. So I'll be asking them about that as well when I speak with them.

[Beaglehound]

They take a while to update your online NI record with payments made. I paid for 2019-20 a couple of weeks back by bank transfer and haven’t even bothered to check yet.