Key Post UK State Pension - Make voluntary contributions to qualify for UK pension on top of Irish pension

Yes - I rang today (5 weeks after the Revolut transfer) and the money has arrived successfully. The lady I spoke to said it can take up to 17 weeks to allocate class 2 payments.
Why would they tell me I can't use revolut by the HMRC CS rep? She was adamant! Anyone else been told this? Confusing..
 
Thank you. I think BOI have the 1k limit on the first day of set up rather than first payment no? After 48hrs I am guessing you could have made full single payment. You were able to set up the exact amount in £Stg in the BOI app? How did you do that? Did they charge you for this? Revolut would be more cost effective and it seems people on here are doing it, but HMRC rep was definite I couldn't us them..
after you have added the payee (HMRC) to your payee list, and when you go to make a payment you select pay in sterling and that option is available as the IBAN is a GB one. and they will tell you on the app how much it will cost you in €.
Sorry the site would not let me reply for some crazy 6000 seconds.
 
I completed the CF83 online on 4th June. I've just checked progress and it says Completed. I've got no messages. Has anyone else completed the process online just wondering what happens next. Apologies if referenced before I couldn't find anything similar in the thread. TIA.
 
I got another HMRC rep this morning who said Revolut is fine. So I paid using that. I looked at the BOI app as well, but it was much more expensive through BOI. If I hadn't of bought US dollars last week taking my monthly allowance to its limit it would have been cheaper again on Revolut. If you have a paid plan with them, which I don't, you probably avoid this 1% fee.
The HMRC rep told me to call them in 6 to 8 weeks to ensure it's allocated to all the back years to 2006. fingers crossed!
 
What can I say? HUGE thank you @DannyBoyD and all the other contributors here and on the other threads.

I got my reply this morning and to my surprise my application to pay class 2 has been accepted fully.

To say I am surprised is an understatement: I was a student in the UK just before I left and came back to Ireland to continue my studies. I only started working a few years later. So I applied to pay class 2 for at least the years I was working here.

It turns out I can buy back all the years @ class 2. Just in case I got the letter in triplicate (3 envelopes).

Next step is to call them. Any idea how I can call the UK without spending too much? I don't have a landline. My GoMo is ~25c per minute. Most other networks have similar charges. Tescomobile is 4c, but I have to spend €15 for the SIM, top up and it stops after 28 days if I don't renew. Lycamobile is my last hope... Has anyone tried any apps like mytello or tuoolani?
Hi there, "so I applied to pay class 2 ..." may I ask how did you apply to pay class 2? was it on form CF83 and if so, I can,t see where exactly. Thanks for any help! ps I,m hoping I can pay class 2 as opposed to class 3.
 
I think people made a case for their eligibility to pay class 2, usually by way of a cover letter sent with form CF83. That's what I did anyway, based on the very sound advice received here and having read the entire thread carefully.
 
I think people made a case for their eligibility to pay class 2, usually by way of a cover letter sent with form CF83. That's what I did anyway, based on the very sound advice received here and having read the entire thread carefully.
thank you!
 
I got another HMRC rep this morning who said Revolut is fine. So I paid using that. I looked at the BOI app as well, but it was much more expensive through BOI. If I hadn't of bought US dollars last week taking my monthly allowance to its limit it would have been cheaper again on Revolut. If you have a paid plan with them, which I don't, you probably avoid this 1% fee.
The HMRC rep told me to call them in 6 to 8 weeks to ensure it's allocated to all the back years to 2006. fingers crossed!
I paid the back years contributions on 22Feb 2024 - to date these contributions haven't been updated on my NIC record - the payments were all allocated to 2023/24 - I was expecting 6-8 weeks for the record to be updated - I wonder is it time to bite the bullet and call them?
 
I think people made a case for their eligibility to pay class 2, usually by way of a cover letter sent with form CF83. That's what I did anyway, based on the very sound advice received here and having read the entire thread carefully.
Exactly like that, cover letter.
 
I paid the back years contributions on 22Feb 2024 - to date these contributions haven't been updated on my NIC record - the payments were all allocated to 2023/24 - I was expecting 6-8 weeks for the record to be updated - I wonder is it time to bite the bullet and call them?
I paid my back years contributions in Jan 2024 and my NIC record was updated in May. It took 18 weeks but well worth the wait. I have now received my notification for voluntary contribution for 2023 / 24. A bit more patience and it will be updated.
 
I paid the back years contributions on 22Feb 2024 - to date these contributions haven't been updated on my NIC record - the payments were all allocated to 2023/24 - I was expecting 6-8 weeks for the record to be updated - I wonder is it time to bite the bullet and call them?
She said it would take up to 16 weeks to show up on the online portal. I would call them.
 
What can I say? HUGE thank you @DannyBoyD and all the other contributors here and on the other threads.

I got my reply this morning and to my surprise my application to pay class 2 has been accepted fully.

To say I am surprised is an understatement: I was a student in the UK just before I left and came back to Ireland to continue my studies. I only started working a few years later. So I applied to pay class 2 for at least the years I was working here.

It turns out I can buy back all the years @ class 2. Just in case I got the letter in triplicate (3 envelopes).

Next step is to call them. Any idea how I can call the UK without spending too much? I don't have a landline. My GoMo is ~25c per minute. Most other networks have similar charges. Tescomobile is 4c, but I have to spend €15 for the SIM, top up and it stops after 28 days if I don't renew. Lycamobile is my last hope... Has anyone tried any apps like mytello or tuoolani?
I have used Gomo and waited about 45 mins. It cost me about 15 Euro. Small change in the scheme of things.
 
So just to help others with anything, my retirement age is next March. I initially made contact with HMRC in August 2021 and as I'm British and moved here in 1992 I had 18 years already up to date. At this point they gave me a forecast of £118 if I kept up to date. With the help of this website and the great info here I started to pay the arrears which was 17 years. I was eligible for class 2 so initially paid £1808 for 11 years in March 2023. An increase showed on my forecast a couple of months later. I then paid payments of around £328 in Sept 2023, Nov 2023 and Feb 2024. Each time I did this I phoned up to tell them I was going to pay. I think they asked me what years I wanted it for but it didn't really matter. Since Feb 2024 I phoned them 3 or 4 times to ask had these payments been allocated as there was no change on my forecast. They said they could see the payments but it is normal for it to take a bit of time for them to be allocated and show. Anyhow a couple of weeks ago the forecast showed the full pension as I'd now paid the 35 years required. I had already added a sterling account to my revolut so it was easy to pay everything via this and also the fees were good if you do it in the working weekdays.
 
I received the below letter today. I only posted the form to them 8 weeks ago so this seems very fast from what I read here. I can see there are some of you are very well versed on this issue on here, so can someone who has a clear understanding of this, tell me what does this mean? View attachment 8907

The piece on page 2 about needing the pension service to confirm you pension will increase if you pay a shortfall is slightly odd, surely by default it will and what form/medium does this confirmation come in ?
 
The piece on page 2 about needing the pension service to confirm you pension will increase if you pay a shortfall is slightly odd, surely by default it will and what form/medium does this confirmation come in ?
The confirmation is verbal over the phone. In your case based on the fact that you have only 3 years contributions it's a given that it will. However there are people who through work might already have enough contributions and in theory could receive the same letter above and purchase the above not understanding that for them it's a waste of money as they will get no benefit for overpaying their NICs.
 
I now have 35 years of contributions but a £15 gap exists between the current full UK state pension and my estimate. Is it possible to buy a 36th and 37th year to gain the full pension or is it capped out at 35 years ?

Edit, The answer was on the first page of the Gov.uk new state pension website! "If you were contracted out, you will usually need more than 35 qualifying years to get the full rate of new State Pension" .
 
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I now have 35 years of contributions but a £15 gap exists between the current full UK state pension and my estimate. Is it possible to buy a 36th and 37th year to gain the full pension or is it capped out at 35 years ?

Edit, The answer was on the first page of the Gov.uk new state pension website! "If you were contracted out, you will usually need more than 35 qualifying years to get the full rate of new State Pension" .
In my case I need 39 years of contributions. The explanation provided by DWP was because I was contracted out for several years. DWP was able to tell me that 4 extra years were required for a maximum pension benefit.
 
Morning
i am currently going through this whole process ,I have used a well known agent to date and am now about to go ahead a make a payment to UK Revenue to bring my contributions up to date ,my wife is in a similar situation to myself as we both worked in the UK at the same time ,we have received a forecast for her (we are trying to do this ourselves without using the agent ) and are now in the process of filling out the cf83 form , my questions are as follows
1) her NI number shows her maiden name ,weve since married ,should we flag this now to revenue
2) does the UK pensions/revenue have access to our Irish tax systems ,ie can they know when you might have been unemployed or on maternity leave ( I ask this as it seems when I sent through my work history to the agent it showed 2 periods of unemployment here in Ireland and I noticed on my statement for contributions from the UK that these 2 years contributions amount to 800 pounds each as opposed to183 for every other year)
thank you
Canine
 
Ref point 1 : I would provide both names on the form.
Ref point 2 : I would provide all of the details as accurate as possible in terms of your employment history. In my case I was asked for a copy of my PRSI record. If it results in you paying 2 years at Class 3 then it's still good value.
As far as I understand there is a bilateral arrangement between Ireland and UK. I would assume that there is some information sharing between the two.
Aside(1) : To be perfectly honest, it's not clear to me the exact reasons why HMRC care whether a person is/was employed/unemployed while the person is living in Ireland, especially if the person never intends to return to the UK, unless there is some close sharing of data between the two jurisdictions.
Aside(2) : Maybe you could ask the agent that you are using to fill in some of the reasons why and how it's possible to receive 2 state pensions and why HMRC care about employment status above and also the amount of information sharing between the jurisdictions?
 
Aside(1) : To be perfectly honest, it's not clear to me the exact reasons why HMRC care whether a person is/was employed/unemployed while the person is living in Ireland, especially if the person never intends to return to the UK, unless there is some close sharing of data between the two jurisdictions.
Because they are the rules! I don't follow the logic myself for the rules but it is what it is. If you're not in employment you pay the more expensive Class 3 (still good value).

Aside(2) : Maybe you could ask the agent that you are using to fill in some of the reasons why and how it's possible to receive 2 state pensions

Because the rules of the two jurisdictions allow it! There are 31 pages of thread on this.

also the amount of information sharing between the jurisdictions?
There is routine information sharing for when people need to aggregate contributions. DSP and HMRC exchange records on request from each other. I don't know if there is on-demand "look-up" access to each other's databases but UK-Ireland Bilateral Convention on Social Security allows for exchange of relevant information.

does the UK pensions/revenue have access to our Irish tax systems ,ie can they know when you might have been unemployed or on maternity leave ( I ask this as it seems when I sent through my work history to the agent it showed 2 periods of unemployment here
I suspect HMRC simply took your work history at face value.
 
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