dontheturner

What a wonderful lady she was! - You forgot to mention the Negative equity - how many people was who lost their homes? Only one group of folks came off good from her schemes.
Ask any ex-miner or ex- steel worker - see if they thought she did good. Should have been hung for destroying our production base, in my opinion.
P.S. Never drive to the Hospital - always use a free bus pass.

Almo

It sure is Chester! A number of people my partner works with keep telling us to buy in Wales rather than England.

kiko69

Does anyone know if it's beneficial to top-up UK pension.
I am 60 been living in Canada for 34 years,I have 6 years entitlement of UK pension.I want to contribute to give me at least 10 years entitlement but don't know of worthwhile.
Cheers

dunroving

Definitely worthwhile unless Canada has something equivalent to the US WEP provision. I believe 10 years will be the minimum to receive any pension under the new rules.

kiko69

Ok thanks for reply

nun

I agree, particularly if you can make the inexpensive Class 2 NICs.

FYI I emailed DPW to check if someone with 30 years of voluntary NICs would have to pay another 5 years of NICs - I imagine they will. Anyway the response I got totally missed my non-resident status and said that if I earned above some income I had to pay NI and the NI would come out of my paycheck automatically. Good grief!

dunroving

You obviously need to work on your communication skills.

nun

Maybe I'd look at it from the perspective that DPW needs to read emails a bit more carefully

Pistolpete2

IF you are non resident there are appropriate channels to contact regarding queries and the direction of correspondence.

For contribution balance queries these are:

Inland Revenue
Centre for Non-Residents
BP1301
Benton Park View
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE98 1ZZ
UK

Tel: 44 191 203 7010
Monday to Friday 08:00 to 17:00

Fax: 44 191 225 7800

For specific problems or record of employment submissions to warrant Class 2 as opposed to Class 3 NICs:

HMRC
Customer Operations
National insurance Contributions Office
International Caseworker BP1301

Address same as above in Newcastle - Benton Park........

Tel: 44 191 225 0735 Mon to Thursday 8:00 - 17:00, Fri to 16:30
Fax : 44 191 225 9570

ALWAYS quote your NI Number

NOTE that the new changes will come into effect NOT BEFORE 6th April 2017, so they could be yet kicked down the road further but for those of us reaching pension age before that date we look to be safe in paying 30 contribution years and getting a full State Pension, reduced level as it is when compared with the new planned 35 conts pension.

The only way to get the pension up to the new levels is by deferring it and getting an approximate 11% boost to your pension for every year deferred, when actually claimed. This can be advantageous for those who reside in a non-EEA or non-bilateral SS agreement country as they will receive annual (CPI) increases (which they would otherwise not get*) until such time that they actually claim. Of course this is an expectation of life "game" that some obviously cannot afford to play.

*The Government Paper specifically states that there is no intention to change this current anomaly as the additional funds so disbursed would cause other programmes to suffer from loss of funding.

dunroving

I don't know if this clarifies or confuses things, but on the BBC News today, the money man (forgot his name) said that if you were a male born before April 5th 1952, you will not be affected by these changes, and the same if you are a female born before April 5th 1953.

I'm guessing that these are the ages who would retire before the 2017 change deadline.

nun

For any of us with 30 years of NICs who will be retiring after 2017 we will be better off under the reforms even if we don't pay the extra 5 years of contributions. If we qualify for just 30/35ths of the increased flat rate state pension in today's dollars it will be

30/35 * 144GBP = 123GBP

whereas the current basic state pension is 107GBP.

Pistolpete2

Should be On or before April 5th .........

dunroving

Yes, that's what I meant. I suppose the detail makes a difference for the 1 in 365 people born on April 5th in those years!

rebs

Paul Lewis - from Radio 4's money box

The date of birth for women is a July date - 6th July 1953. Took me a while to track that him saying that, found it on his twitter feed in the end.

dunroving

Thanks - yes, I only half-heard what he said and changed channels before I realised I could have wound it back (I have a PVR on my telly)!

Mind you, it's always worth checking these things - yesterday, Bill Turnbull (duffer, IMO), said the helicopter that crashed yesterday crashed into a plane (rather than a crane). I was sure I must have mis-heard it, but on that occasion, I did rewind and I was right.

I find so many of the news people now are mindlessly reading from the cue machine. Laura Kuenssberg, another financial commentator was clearly reading from prepared handwritten notes, even though she was only speaking for about 2-3 minutes. Bring back Richard Dimbleby!