Snap Shot

Thanks, very useful information, I've sent you a P.M.

Snap Shot

Good to know, most useful, thanks.

Dizzyp

I think I was allowed because I had been 'paid up' to 30 years before they increased it to 35 years last year. The letter I received from them when I enquired about my NIC record, included a table with the years I had a shortfall for and the payment due. Therefore if anyone is in the same boat (currently have 30 years contributions), they'll probably be able to go back more than 6 years to catch up.

Pulaski

Ah, that would make sense, .... but generally it is six years.

Snap Shot

I think I'm understanding that I don't have to pay any top up N.I. contributions. My husband posed the question, 'what happens if we don't pay ?' Well, nothing it seems to me. I understand the overall pension payment will be reduced dependant on an underpayment of National Insurance contributions. This can be dealt with by getting back into the system i.e. get a job and pay tax and national insurance in the normal manner. It's not as if it's compulsory to pay N.I. top ups and it seems to me they don't 'grab it' i.e. start deducting extra N.I. contributions from my income when they realise there is a gap in my N.I. contributions as if I had underpaid income tax. (I'm not confusing the two btw)

For a woman my age, I need 30 years N.I. contributions to qualify for a pension. I had 23 years contributions paid before leaving the UK. I've got enough years on my working life should we return to the UK to clock up to 30 years i.e. 7 years of working and paying N.I. contributions. Then still some after that as it's anybody's guess when I will retire.

However, I am planning to write to them anyway. To bad they don't seem to have an e-mail address. There is a phone number, dependant on the query. There's also a postal address, but I could not see an e-mail.

It makes no difference to me, I don't have a problem with, 'snail mail' it would just be useful to use e-mail to communicate with the 'National Insurance Department', that's all.

Pulaski

It's changed to 35 years for men and women, effective this April (2016), I think .... or last spring. In any case long before you appear to be planning on retiring.

Snap Shot

Thanks, useful information once again

It seems I may well have enough years of my working life (should we return to Britain and I get a job), including it going up to 35 years for the could-be-five-years absence of N.I. payments not to matter. I hope. If so, all well and good.

formula

Did I hear in the budget yesterday, that Class 2 is ending in 2018?

Did anyone else hear this?

vikingsail

Yes you did. Here is the BritExpat thread on the issue so far:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-5...utions-874408/

formula

Thanks. I thought I might have misheard it!

Pulaski

Class 3, at about £730/yr. Still not a bad deal for another income stream in retirement. That said it will price many people out of contributing, and the resulting pension could become means-tested at some point, thereby denying pension payments to those who were able to afford the contributions.

formula

Or they could raise the state retirement age again. Or put it back up to 44 years again for a full state pension, in the interest of equality of course (women needed 39 years and men needed 44 years).

I think the removal of class 2 was to make the SE pay a fairer contribution towards their state pension. The fact that those abroad could buy the cheaper class 2s, was perhaps just a bonus for them?

The no piggybacking off a partner's contributions (state pension will only be based or your own contributions now) might also make it less attractive to those abroad and having to pay the more expensive class 3s from 2018?

Bud the Wiser

So if you have 30 years of contributions, can you pay the extra five years at Class 2 rates before 2018?

formula

Are you asking if you can pay the next 5 years in advance? The answer to that is no. Or previous years in arrears?

Bud the Wiser

It would be previous years in arrears for me and Mrs. Bud. Caught up to the 30 years in 2009.

Sorry I wasn't clear in the previous post.