RetireJapan

Came home to a brown envelope from HMRC today...
The heart started racing, sweat beads gathered on my brow...
You can see why from my previous posts in this thread where HMRC said I was ineligible to make voluntary contributions...

Anyway, opened it up and it was a confirmation letter to start Direct Debit monthly payments from this May, and that they were also going to take £115.05 to cover NI contributions due from 08/04/18 to 05/01/19... Now, that sounded way too cheap... There is nothing on the 3 page letter to say what class of repayments l had been deemed eligible for, so I phoned them up...
Unbelievably, I have been asked to make Class 2 repayments! I'm so happy! Now to chase them up about backpaying...

A big thanks to the RetireJapan community for giving me the information and motivation to apply... Not just for the UK pension, but my iDeco and NISA are also up and running thanks to this site... The information found here is invaluable. Much appreciated!

goodandbadjapan wrote: ↑Thu Feb 28, 2019 1:30 pm Quick update here - having backpaid 12 years worth of payments at the start of the year, nothing had changed on my records, so i called up the other day. It seems my money was in their system but just sort of floating around as far as I could tell. I asked if they could make sure it got allocated properly and as of today it has been. So, worth chasing up!

Now, if I keep paying my class 2s I'll get 38 years total payments which should get me a full UK pension. Hurray!

Bit of a late reply to this one but if you are looking in be aware that under current rules it would be a waste of money to go beyond the full 35 qualifying years, so best to stop once you have those ‘in the bank’. Mind you with the lovely Ian Duncan Smith’s new plan to delay the pension until 75, who knows how the system will look by the time we retire!

Beaglehound wrote: ↑Wed Aug 21, 2019 8:42 am

goodandbadjapan wrote: ↑Thu Feb 28, 2019 1:30 pm Quick update here - having backpaid 12 years worth of payments at the start of the year, nothing had changed on my records, so i called up the other day. It seems my money was in their system but just sort of floating around as far as I could tell. I asked if they could make sure it got allocated properly and as of today it has been. So, worth chasing up!

Now, if I keep paying my class 2s I'll get 38 years total payments which should get me a full UK pension. Hurray!

Bit of a late reply to this one but if you are looking in be aware that under current rules it would be a waste of money to go beyond the full 35 qualifying years, so best to stop once you have those ‘in the bank’. Mind you with the lovely Ian Duncan Smith’s new plan to delay the pension until 75, who knows how the system will look by the time we retire!

Yes - I guess I can stop at 35 years and that will hopefully get me the full pension. But, as you say, who knows what's going to change!

Beaglehound wrote: ↑Wed Aug 21, 2019 8:42 am Mind you with the lovely Ian Duncan Smith’s new plan to delay the pension until 75, who knows how the system will look by the time we retire!

Or If evil Marxist, Corbin ever gets to be PM, everyone will be eating out of rubbish bins when he destroys the economy.

The British people will never elect Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister, so calm yourself...

ricardo wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2019 5:47 am The British people will never elect Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister, so calm yourself...

Wasn't that said about the U.S. populace voting for their current U.S. president? You can't trust what people say,because what they do is often different.To your face,say the "right" thing.Behind closed doors, a whole different story!

And that's just about elections. Remember Brexit? No-one saw that coming.A lotta sneaky cants right there.

Corbyn has such consistently low approval ratings that I can’t see him ever leading Labour to power. I take the point about Trump and Brexit but think it tends to be the less ‘liberal’ options that people don’t own up to in polls.