mrken30

Just be careful on year 35 contributions, I get an extra 80p a week for a full year of contributions. I believe that this is because I have some years were I was opted out.

shelley748

I called them b4 i sent the money by wire transfer & they confirmed with me which years to pay & how much !! I sent the funds off & called again to confirm safe receipt.They said it takes up to 32 weeks to process.

morpeth

Maybe depends how paid- I paid via UK bank, within 2 to 6 weeks contributions were credited to right year- and all credited to my account with 1 week.

alfista1

How did you see the updated payments? On the app/gateway?

I've just paid this year 179 direct from Barclays. - Certainly hope it takes less than 32 weeks!!

I will call them in a few weeks to sort out the 4 previous years at class 2 to ensure payments are assigned to those years before I pay more.

Just seen Skype have a free month's trial with unlimited calls to landlines in the UK from here. Then 2.99 USD after that, cancel anytime it says.
Sounds like a no brainer.

Pulaski

Off-topic for this thread, but that's exactly what I need, so I'm going to sign up.

morpeth

I use Skype and Whats App.

When I made payments I could confirm within a week credit to my account, and could be allocated if requested by phone 2 to 3 weeks. On line simply when allocated hows that year as paid. I used the UK number not the number listed for calling from overseas.

Pulaski

If you were opted out, depending on your salary at the time, you may need to make more than 35 years of contributions, though, as with your 80p example, the incremental pension benefits may not make it worth your while.

Pulaski

So a few days ago I received confirmation that I am now fully paid up, qualified for the maximum UK state pension at retirement age (but subject to increases if I don't draw it when I reach retirement age).

The letter did not come with any explanation, calculation, or even numbers, so I don't as yet know how my last payments were applied. In theory I am likely owed a small refund of excess payments, maybe around £5, but who knows when, or if it might arrive, and it's too small an amount for me to worry about.

The only other thing in the brief letter were the cautionary words, that my status of fully paid up for the maximum pension was subject to any possible future changes to the eligibility rules and calculations, so I'll need to keep my eye on that.

nunnun

That sentence is why I decided to keep paying Class 2 NI past 35 years while it lasted. My qualifying number of years has already increased once from 30 to 35 and going from 35 to 40 does not seem implausible given the current political and economic situation in the UK. It would be a harder decision to pay Class 3, but Class 2 NI seems like reasonably priced insurance.

tdrinker

It's money well spent if it gives you peace of mind, although I wouldn't do it myself. I expect some changes, e.g. the triple lock if often debated and the state pension may be means tested one day (starting at a high income threshold so it only affects a minority and the majority don't object, and gradually the income threshold will be reduced). But it's speculative, things change but we don't know how or when, but probably not for the term of the next parliament given the noises Labour are making. We also don't know our own longevity, i.e. how much investing in voluntary NI payments will yield (after any potential changes), but for most of us it will be positive.

nunnun

Paying voluntary NI past 35 years isn't really sensible, but as you say it's inexpensive peace of mind, and I sort of feel bad about how little NI I've paid over my lifetime for the benefit I stand to gain. I can see that Class 2 is a way to encourage small businesses, but the "loophole" for expats to also pay it always struck me as strange. I think the old Class 3 expat payments made a bit more sense.

tdrinker

Agree, allowing voluntary class 2 NI payments for some categories of people, e.g. expats, is incomprehensible given the disproportionate cost / benefit. Equally incomprehensible is the frozen pensions policy in some countries. The government justifies this on cost grounds whilst continuing with class 2. Why can't (or won't) they sort it out, so people pay a fair rate and some pensioners aren't discriminated against?

Pulaski

I agree, and that is why I requested that one of my additional years contributions was applied to one of my 2006-2008 missed years, giving me the greatest possible window of back payments, if I need to make more contributions after the back payments window reverts to the six most recent years. .... I suppose they could also reduce the number of years of arrears that can be paid, but I think that is unlikely.

I doubt the "35 years for a full pension" will change as that would disproportionately affect women not working while they raised children, with the current maximum being 50 years (rising to 51 when retirement age rises to 67), though anything is possible.

If any change is likely, and I have been expecting this for almost as long as I have been working, I think the most likely change would be to make payment of the state pension means tested, and that is likely to affect me, given my other pension savings and investments, at least currently. If that happens, I won't be too concerned, still annoyed though! , as the Class 2 payments I made were peanuts anyway. In fact I posted that several times on BE, probably at least once further up this actual thread ^, that I see paying Class 2 as like insurance - if I have low income and need the pension when I retire, I'll be glad I made the payments, but if I retire with good (other) pensions and investments I won't be too concerned about the "wasted" Class 2 voluntary contributions I made as they were so low anyway.

nunnun

Yes, my US SS will be twice as much as my UK state pension and I have other retirement income sources so losing UK SP would be annoying more than anything else.
I sometimes wonder how the Class 2 NI payments for expats was adopted and theorize that it was some multi-national executive who suggested it to a minister over late night brandies.

Pulaski

Personally, I think it was originally an accident, a loophole that was left open, not planned deliberately, as Class 2 contributions are primarily for the self employed, it's an oddity that they are also available to expats. But if a conscious decision was taken to leave that loophole open, then I suspect it was on the assumption that [1] "most expats would return home", at least when they retire, if not sooner, which would place the burden of impoverished pensioners back on the British government anyway, and [2] that expats "working in the (former) colonies" wouldn't have access to an equivalent pension saving scheme to the British state pension, .... and per [1] above would return home to the UK without adequate provision for their retirement. Though honestly, I think that the whole thing is a bit of a (bad) joke as anyone today relying solely on the UK state pension would probably be barely able to survive, even if they owned their own home, so had no rent.