AFriend

Hoping some one can help me with the change in UK pension.
I am a Nurse in USA been living and working for 18 yrs.
I had paid in for 30yrs and was informed I had completed my contributions while living abroad. Since found out as of April 2016 I need to add another 6 yrs. I have requested and completed form Class 3 National Insurance credit for the four yrs I moved with my Husband with military.
Now filling in form NI38 form to pay national Insurance contributions abroad.
Before I complete all these can I have both pensions. I am dual citizen and paying into both.
Looking forward to any help anyone may have

mrken30

I believe the requirement increased from 30 years to 35 years. Maybe that is the reason.

Pulaski

Yes, you can have both, BUT there is something covering US Social Security called the Windfall Elimination Provision which reduces your US Social Security payment in respect of some (most) pensions received in respect of payments while you were either (i) outside the US, or (ii) working for the government (federal, state or local) in the US if you were not contributing to the Social Secuity scheme.

In your case part of your UK state pension will not be included in the WEP calculation because it was funded with money while you were working in the US, so the four years of Class 3 contributions you mentioned, plus any other years funded while living in the US. So for example if you have 35 years of eligibility for a UK state pension and 25 of those years were funded while you were in the UK, then your "WEPable" pension would be the gross amount × 25/35. WEP is also greater when you have few years of SS contributions and reduces as you have more years of SS contributions. There is no WEP once you reach 30 years of SS contributions.

You should go take a look at the pensions thread in the US forum as there is a long-running discussion of this and related issues. Here's a link to it, it has been running since 2011, so you may want to start reading near the end to read the most recent discussions.

BEVS

Moved to the UK forum where more people will see it.

Thanks

Pulaski

She's in the US, so the US forum is probably more useful, where the likes of Lansbury, Robin, Nun, and others, will see it.

Editha

Make sure your National Insurance payments will actually buy you an increased pension.

The new-style pension is reduced if you have ever been in a 'contracted out' pension scheme, which will probably include you if you ever worked for the NHS.

The minimum amount you will get will be what you would have got under the old scheme. This means that if your new-style pension is reduced significantly by the contracted out reduction, then it may not be worthwhile making additional contributions.

If additional contributions will not gain you anything, HMRC should send back your application, but it would still be a good idea to check, if you haven't done so already.