Voluntary contributions made in 2024 appear to have been allocated to 2024/2025 before backfilling of 2006/2007 through 2023/2004

Firstly, many thanks to all who contributed in all the associated threads.

I made a payment of around £3700 at the end of May 2024 which would cover 18 years of voluntary NIC from 2006/2007 through 2023/2024. These were all the years that were advised as payable in the letter I received from HMRC. These were mostly class 2 until 2023/2024 and onwards which would be class 3. I am still waiting for this payment to be allocated to specific years. I noticed on the HMRC website that the most recent year 2024/2025 which was not available to me in May 2024 has been marked as full via voluntary contributions. I can only assume that the money to pay for this has been taken from the transfer I made in May 2024. If so this would not leave enough to cover all the remaining years. I was expecting to received a request to pay for 2024/2025 separately. I have the following questions.

Has this happened to others and if so does anyone have any more information on what I should expect to happen going forward?

I may want to make a preemptive payment to cover 2024/2025. Is the payment method for any ongoing years the same as is outlined in the letter for the initial backfill?

@Gazzar exactly the same for me. I rang them Friday and they said that they had made a mistake at their end with a lot of people. But that at the moment they were prioritising the people at or nearly at retirement age. They put a note on the file to contact me when it was sorted. I actually made them read out the note they put on the file. I paid for my 18 years class 2 in March 24, which they logged as 2024/25.

I wouldn't worry about it but I would ring them to tell them that the payment has been wrongly allocated.

"We are not alone"!!

Hi, this happened to me last year
I asked a question over on the HMRC forum
I rang them and wrote them a letter, outlining what years I wanted etc
After about 4 months, they sorted it correctly

4 months

I have since discovered that HMRC have a payment robot, it runs at the end of the tax year and before the new tax year opens for business. If it finds enough money in your acc, it will credit the previous year.
I paid for one year 24/25 last Thurs 3rd via Revolut, it was credited on Mon 7th in the evening when I checked

Same scenario with me. I paid for 18 years at class 2 in March and my account has only been updated to show contributions for 24/25 and not the previous years. I will ring them in a few weeks when they will hopefully be less busy and try to get it sorted.

Yep, wouldn't worry about it too much Gazzar. I think it defaults to crediting the most recent year which is an indication that they have received your payment but haven't yet allocated it to the appropriate years. I got my letter in late Feb 2024, Made my payment in early March 2024 and my record remained like your up until January of this year when it was finally allocated to the appropriate years. Only took a follow up letter (sent in March 2024) and 3 phone calls (30-50 mins each on hold waiting) but got there in the end. If you are anxious and haven't done so already, no harm in firing off a letter, including a copy of your original assessment of years from HMRC, detailing the payment you made and what years you would like it allocated towards.

Also, going forward it is my understanding that we will get a letter each year from now on, inviting us to make a payment for the previous year (up until we reach 35 years contributions required for a full pension) or reach OAP age of 67, whichever comes first.

Just checked our accounts. Both paid 18 years mainly at class 2, husband had one year mix of 2 and 3. Called and was told money in and would be allocated against all years.

My account shows a full year for 2024/25 which was not part of the 18 years.

Husbands shows no payment for 23/24 and full years from 2018/19 to 2023/24. I don’t get why they didn’t allocate all the way back as was one payment and the woman we spoke to said she had made a note that payments were to cover full amount per letter on file.

Hoping it will resolve in the next while. Hard not to feel a bit anxious !

Will keep an eye on this thread.

I just called through to HMRC via +44 191 203 7010. After a 33 minute wait I was handled by a very pleasant and well informed agent. He said that it was a common problem as described by Giggs11. He said that since I had been waiting nearly a year he would fix the allocation as part of the call, deallocating from 2024/2025 and allocating to all the other years. He mentioned that this is a multistep process and should be visible to me online in about a weeks time.

He mentioned that I should get a yearly request for the most recent year by letter around June each year. If I made the transfer at the end of March each year of the correct amount via the same payment method as the lump sum payment it should be automatically allocated to the most recent year in early April.

I'll check in a week or so and report back.

Many Thanks @Gazzar et al. I'm in the same position but based on your info I'm inclined to just leave them alone to sort it over time.

I do know my lump sum payment has been received and credited to my NI number so I'll leave them alone for now to work through it all.

Checked now and the contributions are all allocated to the years I initially expected and these are shown as full years online and my estimated pension estimates were increased accordingly.

I paid a fair whack of money on 19th March, decided to leave the call to check receipt of monies a few weeks. I rang on Wednesday 16th April, prior to that call I noticed my GovtGateway account showed credits for 2022 and 2023 tax years. Initially agent couldn't confirm receipt of my money but as I have been reading this forum I alerted to him about the money filled in for recent tax years, when he looked he saw the money I had paid. He said he would allocate from 2006 and this morning - 48 hrs later, all monies allocated and Pension Forecast updated. - happy days.

My contributions are all allocated correctly now. Husbands still show as allocated full years from 2018/19 to 2023/24 (last six years) but nothing before that. Not sure whether to leave or call them again. Almost there !!