expatbrit39

From what I'm reading, if the Chancellor scraps National Insurance altogether, there will be no way to voluntarily buy into the state pension if the UK goes to an income tax only solution. It would be the same as the USA - you have to earn money to pay into social security.

Any thoughts?

neill

Seems like they are trading one tax for another, just the usual games. The UK has massive fiscal issues so of course the chancellor is cutting taxes.
With any luck if that ever happens, it's a few years out, and there's also the likelihood of regime change in the UK this year.

Glasgow Girl

Well as they say, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Voluntary contributions are the deal of the century particularly Class 2, and to honest I am surprised they have continued to allow expats to make them. But since they do everyone should backfill as many years as possible and as many future years as they can, while they can.

I doubt NI will be scrapped anytime soon, last time they tried to mess with it they backtracked pretty quickly, so I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one. But I do think they will find a way to take that very valuable tool out of our toolkit at some future point in time, it’s an easy way to reduce spending and not lose many votes.

expatbrit39

I’m not able to post the link but the Guardian has more info here


“Your NICs payment record is key to unlocking certain benefits, including the state pension. Your weekly entitlement increases depending on how many years of contributions you have made, and you need to have put in at least 10 years’ contributions to access the pension.

Getting rid of employees’ and self-employed national insurance would mean the government would need another mechanism of recording how much someone has contributed in their working life – or a different benefits system entirely.”