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

My case isn't straightforward as I worked for approximately 17 months full time in the UK from August 2002 until December 2003. I then studied in the UK for a year and was paid a bursary of £600 a month as the profession I was studying for at the time was in short supply in the UK.
I worked for even less in the UK and I was allowed to make Class 3 contributions.

I doubt you were paying NI contributions when on a bursary though.
 
I worked for less than two years but it did span over three tax years which seems to be similar to you. I studied also and was allocated extra years so my record showed 5 years and so far I’ve topped that up to 20 years with class 2. Get the NI number and create a MyGov account and see how many years you have there first!
 
I worked for less than two years but it did span over three tax years which seems to be similar to you. I studied also and was allocated extra years so my record showed 5 years and so far I’ve topped that up to 20 years with class 2. Get the NI number and create a MyGov account and see how many years you have there first!
Great thanks so much for your reply @Zizigirl
 
Hi, I sent in the money to buy back years last week on Monday, I looked online today and no sign of anything. Is it in the 'check progress' section that you would see it?? Am I expecting too much to expect it to be there this soon? I sent it by bank transfer.

Any advice appreciated
 
Hi, I sent in the money to buy back years last week on Monday, I looked online today and no sign of anything. Is it in the 'check progress' section that you would see it?? Am I expecting too much to expect it to be there this soon? I sent it by bank transfer.

Any advice appreciated
It would appear there is a time lag of 6 months or more in getting the money allocated to the appropriate years and reflected on line at the moment (I've been waiting since March!). If you are concerned you could always call the number (approx 30 min wait time) to have receipt of your payment confirmed, or write a follow up letter detailing your payment and what years you would like to allocate the money to (but equally the lead time for reply to such letters is showing 1 year on line). Good luck
 
Thanks for your reply. I had hoped it would be sooner. Am I correct that it will appear online in the ‘ check progress’ section???

I’ll give it till next week and then phone

Thanks again
 
Thanks for your reply. I had hoped it would be sooner. Am I correct that it will appear online in the ‘ check progress’ section???

I’ll give it till next week and then phone

Thanks again
I sent the payment by bank transfer on 5th March and the record was updated yesterday, 20th August. I only ever checked the in progress section when I sent over the application form and was waiting anxiously for it to be processed. I know other people on this thread have phoned them a week after sending the money just to check they have received it.
 
Thanks. That took quite a while. I may phone in a few days

Once you saw it in the in progress section did you phone them to allocate the years?

Thanks
 
Thanks. That took quite a while. I may phone in a few days

Once you saw it in the in progress section did you phone them to allocate the years?
I phoned them to allocate the years a couple of days before sending the money but other people have done it afterwards so either way seems to work.
 
I made my payment at start of April, having rung them a few days previously telling them which years I would be paying.

Still nothing showing on my account, but I rang them last week and they confirmed that there was a payment received and which years it would be allocated to.

She seemed confused as to why it wasn't reflected in my online record so she escalated it to another team.
 
Finally got accepted to pay class 2 NICs approx 16 years back dated.
Does any know if you can pay through a Bank Of Ireland
Ie just got letter but no pay slip
Spider
 
I did it online but from my own BOI account with the info in the letter. Although their account is sterling, you have to add extra to cover all the fees. I think I added an extra 30. I had to set them up as a Payee and wait 48 hours before i could pay as sum was over 1000.
Good luck
Hi
Stitcher, when you set up the new payee ie HMRC , did you set it up as GB. If so where did you fill in your
NI number +IC+ Surname ect was it in one of the message boxes
 
Hi Spider9,
Do you mean sterling by GB? I think yes I did sayvtheir account was Sterling. But you still have to take into account exchange rates and fees and pay in Euros

Account name was 'HMRC NIC Receipts' as instructed

I filled in NI number etc in the 'My Ref No' field.

I rang recently as my payment still wasn't showing on the Gateway page and was told, yes it was there, and would be processed in due course, so am happy now it's all going OK behind the scenes.
 
Summary
If you lived in the UK for at least three years and worked there for at least some of this time.

You can make backdated contributions of National Insurance for up to 18 years which will cost you either £163 for each year purchased or £824 for each year purchased.

The UK state pension is £185 a week or £9,620 a year - and increases every year.
Each year purchased entitles you to an extra 1/35th of the UK State pension or an extra £185 a year.

Yes, that is right. For a once off payment of £163 or £824 now, you could get an extra £185 every year after retirement.
And you can continue making contributions up to retirement age.
Hi DannyboyD,
Firstly, thanks very much for the very informative post. Can I just double check something in your figures though. Below you mention that each year purchased gets you an extra £185 per year. Should that not be £275 (9,620 divided by 35 rather than 9,620 divided by 52?) . I might have missed something so apologies if this is the case

The UK state pension is £185 a week or £9,620 a year - and increases every year.
Each year purchased entitles you to an extra 1/35th of the UK State pension or an extra £185 a year.

Yes, that is right. For a once off payment of £163 or £824 now, you could get an extra £185 every year after retirement.
And you can continue making contributions up to retirement age.
 
Hopefully in retirement we'll not be restricted to a 35 week year. Personally I'm hoping for many of the 52 week variety.

Should I get my coat?
 
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