National Insurance: Neglecting payments and how to turn it around

[volatileresolve]

I have a follow-up question.

This is not going to sound too bright, but I am having trouble remembering/tracking down who I worked for just before I came out to Japan.

I am pretty sure it was work that I had through an agency rather than a direct employment, but now I am not sure how to find their details or even to confirm which agency I worked through.

I tried going back through my bank records, but online they only seem to extend to 2002 (I need to go to 2000), and I cannot find anywhere on gov.uk site (or at least nothing that would go back that far).

Does anyone know a way to find out previous employers?

It is a couple of years since I did this, so apologies if I am misremembering something, but I seem to remember that you can set up an account with the HMRC to check your status (I am not sure if that is the same as the gov.uk account you are referring to). I would recommend doing this since from this account you can access your payment history, and in my case it listed the name of the company who were paying me prior to my departure to Japan. I believe I also included a cover letter with my application roughly detailing the details as far as I could remember them (you can use phrases such as 'so far as I remember,...').

As other people have commented, setting up this pension is really going to be the best investment money can buy, so I would definitely go for it. It does take some time to setup but is well worth it. They will send you an update every year by post once it is up and running so you can check payments are proceeding as planned. Remember that you can further increase the amount you receive by delaying taking the pension (as with the Japanese one). The only
downside is that the pension will not go up if you receive it in Japan, and since the UK pension does rise steadily each year due to the triple lock this could be an important point if it will form a large part of your income after retirement.

Good luck!

Thanks for the information.

About a week ago I sent the documents and a cover letter explaining as much as I can about where I worked prior to coming to Japan and other information that they asked for.

I expect the documents will have arrived by now, but not sure what I should do next to follow up.

Did most people wait to be contacted by HMRC? If so, how long did it take to be first contacted? (I assume there may have been delays due to HM passing away
Wales4RWC19 ( !) mentioned calling HMRC to get things moving. Do you think I should do that soon?

[taneandy]

A few months for a first reply seems to be typical.
(Keep in mind that it probably takes about a month between any action being taken by HMRC and a letter about it reaching you in Japan).

I’m not sure if there is any point contacting them by phone while waiting for an initial reply unless it is taking a really long time.
Once your initial application has been dealt with any follow up about back payments, etc. may need a phone call to get things moving though!

[Beaglehound]

It does take a while and I would not bother calling yet. I notice that you have back payments that need to be made by next April at a preferential rate so if you haven’t heard anything by January it would likely be worth chasing them up then.

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

I had been dealing with HMRC by mail and it was extremely slow- I phoned them up last month and made them aware of the situation, they were very responsive, and I got letter yesterday to say that my issues have been resolved.

A phone call might just help the gentle push for issues to get more quickly resolved.

[volatileresolve]

I had been dealing with HMRC by mail and it was extremely slow- I phoned them up last month and made them aware of the situation, they were very responsive, and I got letter yesterday to say that my issues have been resolved.

A phone call might just help the gentle push for issues to get more quickly resolved.

Great! Glad it worked out. Did you initially receive a response by post? How long after mailing your documents did the first one arrive?

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

I had been dealing with HMRC by mail and it was extremely slow- I phoned them up last month and made them aware of the situation, they were very responsive, and I got letter yesterday to say that my issues have been resolved.

A phone call might just help the gentle push for issues to get more quickly resolved.

Great! Glad it worked out. Did you initially receive a response by post? How long after mailing your documents did the first one arrive?

I sent the original letter on the 5th of May.... I got their letter on the 26th of September. It’s an extremely slow snail mail who works for the HMRC.

[volatileresolve]

I had been dealing with HMRC by mail and it was extremely slow- I phoned them up last month and made them aware of the situation, they were very responsive, and I got letter yesterday to say that my issues have been resolved.

A phone call might just help the gentle push for issues to get more quickly resolved.

Great! Glad it worked out. Did you initially receive a response by post? How long after mailing your documents did the first one arrive?

I sent the original letter on the 5th of May.... I got their letter on the 26th of September. It’s an extremely slow snail mail who works for the HMRC.

Update:

I finally managed to call someone at HMRC as Wales4WC19 suggested. I had previously attempted to call but had been left on hold for so long I hung up, but today, after about ten minutes, I got put through to someone who forwarded me to the correct department. Both people on the phone were, as W419 suggested, very friendly and helpful (to the point of restoring some of my long lost faith in UK customer service) and found out some interesting information.

Apparently my application had arrived back in mid-September (about a week after I sent it) and I was told that it usually takes 21 weeks to process, and a reply is due to be sent to me in mid-February. At that point I will either be told how to make the payments or a request for additional information will be made.

I explained that I was slightly worried that by the time all of the paperwork was completed, the April 5th 2023 deadline may have passed. However, the guy on the phone reassured me that the date at which they received the application (September 2022) being before the deadline means the payments will be accepted even if I have to send documents back.

This is great news, and presumably means anyone who hasn't yet started the process and were worried that they will miss out on back payments to 2006 should send them regardless of how long it will take.

[kuma]

Great! Glad it worked out. Did you initially receive a response by post? How long after mailing your documents did the first one arrive?

I sent the original letter on the 5th of May.... I got their letter on the 26th of September. It’s an extremely slow snail mail who works for the HMRC.

Update:

I finally managed to call someone at HMRC as Wales4WC19 suggested. I had previously attempted to call but had been left on hold for so long I hung up, but today, after about ten minutes, I got put through to someone who forwarded me to the correct department. Both people on the phone were, as W419 suggested, very friendly and helpful (to the point of restoring some of my long lost faith in UK customer service) and found out some interesting information.

Apparently my application had arrived back in mid-September (about a week after I sent it) and I was told that it usually takes 21 weeks to process, and a reply is due to be sent to me in mid-February. At that point I will either be told how to make the payments or a request for additional information will be made.

I explained that I was slightly worried that by the time all of the paperwork was completed, the April 5th 2023 deadline may have passed. However, the guy on the phone reassured me that the date at which they received the application (September 2022) being before the deadline means the payments will be accepted even if I have to send documents back.

This is great news, and presumably means anyone who hasn't yet started the process and were worried that they will miss out on back payments to 2006 should send them regardless of how long it will take.

This is brilliant information for anyone whose application and/or response is likely to be close to the deadline. Thanks for sharing.

[volatileresolve]

I sent the original letter on the 5th of May.... I got their letter on the 26th of September. It’s an extremely slow snail mail who works for the HMRC.

Update:

I finally managed to call someone at HMRC as Wales4WC19 suggested. I had previously attempted to call but had been left on hold for so long I hung up, but today, after about ten minutes, I got put through to someone who forwarded me to the correct department. Both people on the phone were, as W419 suggested, very friendly and helpful (to the point of restoring some of my long lost faith in UK customer service) and found out some interesting information.

Apparently my application had arrived back in mid-September (about a week after I sent it) and I was told that it usually takes 21 weeks to process, and a reply is due to be sent to me in mid-February. At that point I will either be told how to make the payments or a request for additional information will be made.

I explained that I was slightly worried that by the time all of the paperwork was completed, the April 5th 2023 deadline may have passed. However, the guy on the phone reassured me that the date at which they received the application (September 2022) being before the deadline means the payments will be accepted even if I have to send documents back.

This is great news, and presumably means anyone who hasn't yet started the process and were worried that they will miss out on back payments to 2006 should send them regardless of how long it will take.

This is brilliant information for anyone whose application and/or response is likely to be close to the deadline. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, I was very happy to hear the information. If anyone else calls HRMC it would be great if they could confirm the information.

[volatileresolve]

Well, today I received a letter from HMRC.

My request to pay Class 2 voluntary payments, with all the back pay I requested has been approved.

Excellent news for me, and also the deadline to make the payments is April 2025. It should be very doable indeed.

That said, I still have to write another document and send that off.

From the time I sent the first letter, to this point, it has taken almost exactly one year.

Thanks to those who helped out, particularly Wales4rugbyWC19. Maybe Wales4rugbyWC23?