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Voluntary UK pension contribution
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 4:20 am
by LucasVi91
Hello all,
Apologies if this has already been answered but myself, a new teacher here in Japan, and a couple of vets have a few questions regarding the UK voluntary pension contribution and the process by which to get up to date.
Questions below:
1. How do I make voluntary pension contributions? The government gateway allows me to view how many years I owe and how much the total will be but does not tell me a way in which to make the contribution. When you click more information on the website, it takes you to a variety of options but none of the options allow for us to pay.
2. In terms of the type of payments, my required pension contribution for the last financial year was 824.20. Does this mean I am tier 2 or tier 3 and if so, what difference would that make for future payments?
3. How long does it take for the pension office to reply to completed documents through the GOV.UK website? I have recently completed some tax information linked to my pension but am yet to hear back from them. I imagine they are backlogged and can imagine it is incredibly busy especially in an election year.
Thank you very much for your help in advance.
Lucas (Gaijin)
Re: Voluntary UK pension contribution
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 5:11 am
by goodandbadjapan
LucasVi91 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 4:20 am
Hello all,
Apologies if this has already been answered but myself, a new teacher here in Japan, and a couple of vets have a few questions regarding the UK voluntary pension contribution and the process by which to get up to date.
Questions below:
1. How do I make voluntary pension contributions? The government gateway allows me to view how many years I owe and how much the total will be but does not tell me a way in which to make the contribution. When you click more information on the website, it takes you to a variety of options but none of the options allow for us to pay.
2. In terms of the type of payments, my required pension contribution for the last financial year was 824.20. Does this mean I am tier 2 or tier 3 and if so, what difference would that make for future payments?
3. How long does it take for the pension office to reply to completed documents through the GOV.UK website? I have recently completed some tax information linked to my pension but am yet to hear back from them. I imagine they are backlogged and can imagine it is incredibly busy especially in an election year.
Thank you very much for your help in advance.
Lucas (Gaijin)
1. You need to fill in a CF83 form which you can access on this page:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-to-pa ... broad-cf83
2. Class 2 or 3 depends on a few things - the form should explain which you may be eligible for. If it's not on the form, the government website I've linked to does explain the requirements somewhere.
3. It seems to vary! Send the form off, wait a few months and if you don't hera anything give them a call. That seems to what most people have done. Took a few months for me if I remember correctly. Good luck!
Re: Voluntary UK pension contribution
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 5:26 am
by adamu
Re: Voluntary UK pension contribution
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2024 3:33 am
by LucasVi91
Thanks for all of your help guys!
Re: Voluntary UK pension contribution
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2024 8:14 am
by eetc155
You can actually apply online now. My brother just did it and got a reply within a month.
Re: Voluntary UK pension contribution
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:05 pm
by RetireJapan
eetc155 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 8:14 am
You can actually apply online now. My brother just did it and got a reply within a month.
OMG. I want those months of my life back that I spent waiting for letters to arrive via Cyprus
Re: Voluntary UK pension contribution
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:20 am
by eetc155
Yeah I wasted close to a year. The first round was around 9 months only to find I had accidentally ticked on class 3. My second attempt was much quicker, around 3 months - I had to reapply, they couldn't change it over the phone.
Apparently in the new online application, you don't get to specify class 2 or class 3, they will work it out for you.
Re: Voluntary UK pension contribution
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2024 1:35 am
by adamu
This is great news.
I wonder if it's a coincidence they finally got around to doing this about the same time as a bunch of lifers abroad became eligible to vote in the upcoming election
Re: Voluntary UK pension contribution
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 1:29 am
by greeninjapan
This is a great resource! Wonderful! Thank you!
Re: Voluntary UK pension contribution
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 1:32 am
by greeninjapan
RetireJapan wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:05 pm
eetc155 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 8:14 am
You can actually apply online now. My brother just did it and got a reply within a month.
OMG. I want those months of my life back that I spent waiting for letters to arrive via Cyprus
Apply online! I will hunt that down!
When I think of my first attempts to make voluntary contributions 25 years ago, the time trying to understand the documentation I received in the post (even though it was in English), filling in the form, sending it, waiting and waiting for a reply, never really sure what was going on.
