clan_campbell

Hi

I have a total of 24 years of paid NI contributions and want to make up a shortfall.

Am I right that you need 35 years paid contributions for the full Pension?

If so, I have been sent a confirmation that I can pay Class 2 contributions with a list of years where no contributions were made, currently 16 years.

Some of those years are part paid.

Second question, how can I pick which years to pay?
For example one year from 2008 I only need to pay around £5. Other years are £163.
Can I somehow specify which years I pay when I make a payment?

On the UK Gov website, it doesn’t provide any details other than how to make a payment. It doesn’t detail how they will use that payment against which years?

https://www.gov.uk/pay-class-2-national-insurance/make-online-telephone-bank-transfer

Thank you!

Reidies

You need to contact the Future Pension Centre. They will advise you how many years you need and which years to pay. In my case it wasn’t worth paying any years prior to 2016 and I require 40 years.
After you get that information you can call HMRC national insurance section and they will advise you how to pay and I told them which years I wanted the payment to cover. About 6 weeks later my record was updated. Hope that helps.

Pulaski

You should be able to choose which years, and £163 is a full year's Class 2 contributions.

If you can pay for part years then I'd pay those first, as all years (unless you were contracted out .... were you?) count equally, and yes you need 35 years for a full pension, unless you were contracted out, in which case it might be more than 35 years.

If you have 24 years of full, paid-up years then you need another 11 years, or more if you were contracted out.