Hasan78

hi all
Thanks for sharing these important info. I am just considering to pay for my NIC. As self employed I have 15 years of qualifying years but just want to know the figure for NIC 2 of £145/yr mentioned above - is that for every body including self employed or it is just for employed?

when one would need to consider the voluntary NIC 3 contribution in addition to NIC2?

thanks.

BristolUK

It's one or the other, not both.

Either will get the same end result. Some qualify to pay the lower rate, some the higher one.

My circumstances suggested I'd have to pay the higher rate but upon application, they confirmed I was eligible to pay the lower rate.

If you make the application, they'll confirm which and give you the rates and deadlines appropriate to you and your situation.

Pulaski

Wot 'e said - request the application form, fill it in and return it, then wait to be advised what you are eligible to pay, and when the deadline for paying is.

JGK

They stopped taking my dd contributions in 2010 which got me worried as I thought i had another 4 years to make up the full 30. I never knew until I contacted them that my years at university also counted

luckily my contributions finished before they extended the contribution period to 35 years.

morpeth

If I went to university abroad does that count ? How does it count ?

Pulaski

Are you drawing your pension? .... The cut off for being "fully paid up at 30 years" was that you started drawing your pension by the cut off date. If you haven't started drawing your pension yet (actually didn't start before the cut-off) then you have another five years of contributions to make before you're fully paid up again.

Elgin1983

I did this last year. Bgpz's post is very thorough, so I advise everyone to read it.

Just one thing: I downloaded, filled out and sent off the form to which he linked, applying to pay Class 2 contributions. To get Class 2, the rules are that you have to have worked and paid in at least 3 years contributions in the UK before you left; you have to have been working up till the date that you left; and you have to have taken up employment straight away in your new country of residence.

I fulfilled all those criteria, but I was sent a (snailmail) letter back telling me how to pay Class 3 (which is much more expensive) and showing me the rates to buy back previous years at Class 3.

I called the National Insurance overseas caseworker line, the number for which came with the letter, and explained that I wanted to pay Class 2. The bloke on the phone asked a couple of questions about where I'd worked before leaving and after arriving, and then said that yes I could pay Class 2. All very brief and simple.

They then sent me another letter showing how much I need to pay to buy back years at Class 2. As bgpz said, you can buy back as far back as 2006-07. It's less than 150 quid a year, for a guaranteed future pension which will be well over 150 quid a week, so worthwhile.

I actually had another NI related question: Juvenile Contributions.

It's recently come to my attention that (until 2010, when the scheme was abolished) UK residents in full-time education who weren't working during the tax years in which they were aged 16, 17, and 18 are entitled to Juvenile NI credits from those years. When I checked my record, the years are blank.

I've just got off the phone to the National Insurance line, and they told me to write in (snailmail again!) to to get them to investigate. With luck I'll get the years credited for free, which will save me a few quid down the line. Has anyone else looked into this, and has it borne fruit?

BristolUK

I didn't. I had all the first bits but no employment in Canada at all. No self employment before or after.

They confirmed I could pay class two for my missing years.

It's definitely worth people checking officially to have all the guidance confirmed.

Edo

How long did your letter take to arrive?

Mine was issued first in November and then in December (I applied in October 2016), but it hasn't arrived to date. I have called and emailed HMRC a couple of times to chase this and every time I get the same answer that it has been issued from the system and may take a while to be printed/mailed as HMRC issues thousands of letters everyday.

I really wanna get on the scheme before it is closed. Is there any way to escalate this?

Hasan78

did you have to submit any other documents other than the form? such as proof of employment and income?? thank

Elgin1983

Edo - I feel your pain. In this age of instant communication, waiting months for paper is annoying. But that's the only way I'm afraid: they claim that email "isn't secure" (as if an envelope is!) I suppose they want to send it snailmail to prove that you do actually live there. I sent the form registered so I was able to track it online - it arrived after 2 weeks. It took over a month from that date for the reply to arrive here at my compound in Riyadh.

But I don't think the scheme will close any time soon. The form they gave me said that it was possible to buy back Class 2 years from 2006-07 onward at any time before 2023.

Hasan - No, I just wrote down the places I had worked since leaving; they didn't demand any proof. In fact, the first place I worked was a small company in a country far from where I now live, which has long since closed down. There would effectively have been no way for me to prove that I worked there, but they just took my word for it.

As BristolUK has suggested, they don't really seem too bothered about checking what you've been doing since leaving UK. As long as you have minimum 3 years UK residency and NI contributions directly before leaving you should be ok.

BristolUK

That wasn't my conclusion but upon reminding myself what the application form looks like, it doesn't seem an unreasonable one.

Edo

Thanks Elgin.

But as word has it, the Class 2 NI scheme is going to shut down in 2018 isn't it?

It may not impact you as much since you have already been accepted but for me the registration process hasn't even been completed yet. So if I don't register/make up for the missing years before April 2018 then I guess I will lose the opportunity to take advantage of Class 2 altogether.

pdarwin

I have 13 years credit in the UK, but not paid anything in since the 80's. Then 7 years credit in the Netherlands. Then the rest of the time until I retire I will have paid into the Canadian system. Is there any reason I would want to pay into the UK system for the last 6/7 years? Does where I retire make a difference (UK or Canada)?

Davita

If you retire in Canada any UKOAP you receive at age 65 will be locked and not increased for inflation..

If you retire in UK your UKOAP will be indexed for inflation annually....and so will your Canada OAS..