Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

Hi guys,

Not sure if this is posted in the correct place, but here goes...

I've been out of the country for some time now but decided to make voluntary national insurance payments to top up any future payment.

I received a letter saying I've been approved for class 2 payments from here on in which has been set up in a 6 monthly DD. All good.

I also want to back-pay - again received a letter with a summary of payments saying i'm eligible to back pay. Thing is there is no information about how.

I've checked online which says you can pay online with an 18 digit reference number (which wasn't received in the letter) or by cheque with similar information. I've called the UK without much help.

Am I supposed to wait for another letter with the reference number or am I going to have to chase them up yet again?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

We recently (6 months ago) went through this exactly as you describe. You have to call HMRC to pay the back contributions. Be prepared and calculate the total of your back contributions as HMRC will ask you how much you wish to pay - they won't know the amount. I ended up adding up all the annual payments on a calculator while the very helpful and patient HMRC agent was on the line. He then dictated the 18 digit number we needed to reference. From our UK bank we were able to do a direct payment, the relevant HMRC bank details were selectable when searching for the payee details from our bank. You can also pay by "Giro" through the Post Office I believe, but you still need that long reference number you are given over the phone.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

durham_lad - many thanks for the great and specific information - we are currently in the approval process

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

Good luck. :fingerscrossed:

I will add that after the money went out of our bank to HMRC I checked online every week to see the NI contributions history and it took at least 3 weeks before the back contributions showed up. It was a great feeling.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

Went thought the same process, the paper work suggested there should have been a payment slip, but there was not. Called, got the 18 digit number and paid. BUT when it did eventually get applied to my record they applied the whole payment to a single year. Took another phone call to get that corrected, where they applied the payment correctly over 6 previous years. So, highly recommend double checking it appears correctly online once you have made the payment.

What I still don't have is a payment request for the 2016-2017 year, so I will need to call again.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

Thanks for the information guys, very much appreciated.

I'll give them a call again tonight. All very strange considering I was on the phone to them yesterday and the agent made no comment about the 18 digit code. Nothing is easy.

Hopefully, i'm near the end of this process, so i will let you know how it goes. Thanks again. ;)

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

Looking forward to 'how it all goes' for you as i have 5 years NI contributions to catch up on and to receive my full State Pension (in less than 3 years) the letter that just arrived stated 'by paying voluntary contributions'.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

I always found Overseas Dep at Longbenton very helpful. I am talking about the days before internet or cheap international calls. Writing letters, quoting NINO, always worked

I have been Recieving State Retirement Pension since 2011

God bless Lloyd George who introduced National Insurance and Bismark, who set the precedent and gave him the idea.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

+1

I also got my NI contributions including back payments sorted out from Texas by letter a few years ago. My wife waited until we got back last year and they were extremely helpful on the phone. I am 3 years away from collecting, my wife has 4 years to go. I will have 30 years of contributions and she will have 31.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

Just sent my payment via internet banking with the hope it goes to the right account.

Spoke to someone on the phone again and she informed me that the reference number is simply an 18 digit combination of NI number + Family name + First name - i.e. AA123456AJONESDAVE.

It's been sent so i'm hoping it will show up in my account after a few weeks as others have mentioned.

The site is confusing as it mentions payment can be sent this way:

'If you’re paying from an overseas account, use your National Insurance number followed by ‘IC’, your surname then your initial.

If your name is Anne Jones, you’d write the reference as QQ123456AICJONESA.'

For anyone who is about to do it, it makes sense to call as they pick up pretty quickly. I used this number from overseas: +44 191 203 7010.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

Good info, and good luck. If you are like me you will be pretty nervous until you see those records show up as paid.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

You can send a cheque in Sterling for any amount and they credit it to your NI number. Best to register for the online service its very easy.
It takes about 4 months for the amount to show up online.
I've been doing this for a couple of years and am up to 141.83 a week without the latest cheque sent in Nov 2017.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

I only worked for about two years in the UK after university before moving to the US in 1979.

Now I am looking to retire to the UK after my 62nd birthday late this year.

Could someone explain the benefits of making voluntary national insurance payments and whether it is something I look into considering how long I have been gone?

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

As i'm considering catching up with my 5 missing years for a full state pension could you reveal how much your paying per year and what type of contribution? I'm close to retirement age without any real income coming in so a little reluctant to pay out from my limited savings.

Re: Voluntary National Insurance payments - How?
 

I would first contact them directly to see what credits you have and what you can gain by doing voluntary contributions.

As you are still living abroad there are some contact numbers here
https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre

It is easier if you have your NI number at hand. If you don't have it you can usually find it here
https://www.gov.uk/lost-national-insurance-number