Hi,
Can anyone let me know if it is worth making back payments in to U.K. Pension? We left 7 yrs ago and are both in our 50s. Thank you in advance.We are currently in Australia.

Yes, assuming it will help you get to 35 years by the time you retire - although I wouldn't be surprised if the next government (or the one after that) puts it up to 40, or 45, or ... who knows how many.

NIC payments don't cost much but yield a lot in return - the topic has been covered in several current threads.

First off, each of you should get a pension statement. https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-statement
You can phone to request one and it takes a couple or more weeks to arrive.

Then check here https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits

And do the sums.

Read this for new information about penions, especially married persons pension where one half has never lived in the UK.

Many Thanks for your replies

Or more accurately when one of the couple has little NI record of their own. And as the OP is in Australia, they should be aware that NI pensions are "frozen" to recipients who live there, i.e. they are not adjusted for inflation each year.

Hi Mike

Would you mind reposting the link to that information please?

I am looking at moving back to the UK from Australia in 2018 and IF I start paying voluntary contributions now AND pay the 6 years in arrears AND put in another 12 years work when I get back I will just be OK (assuming that they don't change the rules again - which they probably will!)

My big worry though is that my(Australian) wife will be coming with me and she has never lived/worked in the UK. How do I get pension provision for her and what would happen if we retired in the UK and I carked it before her?

I know the subject of pensions/NI contributions has been covered extensively but some of us thick kids at the back of the classroom are still struggling with it a bit

Any help appreciated.

Sorry, but can't find another link to the article I quoted, but it was about draft regulations which may well come in as the UK government tries to save money. It was something about people who have never lived or worked in the UK being able to claim.

I couldn't find the original article (the issue was in the news about May 5th), but here is a later one on the same issue.

Am trying not to use links to the Daily Telegraph as some users will be locked out after sampling their monthly pre-subscription ration:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22423878

Bloody ... bugger ... stuff it ...

I knew BBC ran a news piece on it on the 6th (because I posted about it), but when I searched for "pension" in the BBC News site, this didn't come up. Confuzzling.

understood that you only need 30 years UK NI payments to receive a full UK state pension.

They are supposed to be changing it to 35 years, but at the moment it is still 30 years,

You can get around the frozen issue by simply not claiming the first time off only. This gets you an uptick of approx 10% plus per annum for the deferral plus any indexation until you actually claim . In addition, any time you are actually in the UK you can update the authorities and get your pension at actual until such time that you leave .

This freezing issue was put to the Chancellor recently and he clearly has no intention of making any changes/concessions as it is a cost issue that "cannot be funded elsewhere".

Plus deferral might or might not be handy for tax purposes if you are playing the residence game - want to reduce your income for tax purposes while resident somewhere that the pension would be taxed.

Pensions Minister and Chancellor have been flip-flopping on the date of implementation and the changes as proposed are still part of the Pensions Bill 2013 so are not yet law. We will have to keep looking for when the changes become concrete, even if wet concrete.