British expats and the state pension

[scobienz]

Incidentally scooby how do you pay, via CC or can you do it via your Gateway thing?

Good question.

Even though the gateway website will give you your status, you will need to write to the pensions people and tell them you want to pay. They will respond (even to Cambodia) and give you details.

For a government department I found them surprisingly responsive and efficient.

From memory I paid by DD transfer. But this was a few years back YTP. Maybe payment options are more sophisticated now.

[scobienz]

This thread was started for the purposes of the state pension. You need only class two contributions to qualify for the pension.

I’m not sure what extra benefits class three give you. Clearly that’s a cost benefit analysis you would have to take for yourself.

I was advised to pay class 2 only.

I just looked into this in more detail. We are all right.

Class 2 contributions - the lower one - is what expats pay if you are working overseas.

The higher class 3 contributions are paid by expats who aren’t working.

That would explain why one of my repaid years was much higher than the others - I wasn’t working for a couple of months that year.

When you write to them they will ask for a detailed list of jobs you have been doing - including dates - for the missing period.

[Jamie_Lambo]

i just checked and apparently ive not paid enough National Insurance since 2007
"You have:

5 years of full contributions
35 years to contribute before 5 April 2055
12 years when you did not contribute enough"

if i click on each year i didnt pay it says "You can make up the shortfall, Pay a voluntary contribution of £795.60 by 5 April 2024(this date varies each year). This shortfall may increase after 5 April 2021."

i doubt ill live until state pension age anyway, for me i cant claim my state pension until im 68!! if im not dead by then ive not tried hard enough!

[scobienz]

i just checked and apparently ive not paid enough National Insurance since 2007
"You have:

5 years of full contributions
35 years to contribute before 5 April 2055
12 years when you did not contribute enough"

if i click on each year i didnt pay it says "You can make up the shortfall, Pay a voluntary contribution of £795.60 by 5 April 2024(this date varies each year). This shortfall may increase after 5 April 2021."

i doubt ill live until state pension age anyway, for me i cant claim my state pension until im 68!! if im not dead by then ive not tried hard enough!

The shortfall in your case would be because you paid some contribution in those years so they know you were working in the U.K. during that year Jamie.

That means you have to reach the minimum for that year. In other words your habit of working a bit and then going overseas each year means you don’t qualify as an expat able to get years via the cheaper Class 2 route.

[Jamie_Lambo]

yeah and tbh its only saying i contributed enough in the first 5 years of my career when i was on the books for building companies, after 2007ish ive always been self employed,
ive been told im not even entitled to claim benefits like the dole either anymore because on my NI,
i never really took much notice because my accountant deals with it but i think i pay Class 4, but its only like 2-300 hundred quid each year that gets taken out my tax return,

[violet]

I tried accessing government gateway to get answers but I need to enter a UK address and to answer credit rating questions that I can’t answer to verify my identity. Too many hoops.

Good luck to all those who action things as a result of scobienz’s thread.

[scobienz]

I tried accessing government gateway to get answers but I need to enter a UK address and to answer credit rating questions that I can’t answer to verify my identity. Too many hoops.

Good luck to all those who action things as a result of scobienz’s thread.

Don’t let that put you off Violet

You can still find out your status and possible remedies by writing to the pensions service. That’s what I did. All you need is your NI number.

They got back to me in 2-3 weeks with a detailed year by year account of activity, and instructions on what and how I could repay.

There are several addresses around the country. They should be easy to find online.

If you have trouble, let me know and I’ll dig out my correspondence with them and give you the address I used. As you’re writing from overseas, one pension office is as good as the rest.

Don’t give up at the first hurdle Violet

[violet]

I got in by entering my last UK address. I have 19 full years of contributions and 19 years where I didn’t pay enough.

I wish there was a link to pay missing contributions. All there was was an 0800 number - no use to me overseas.

I will look for a state pension office address next.

[ReasonstobefearfulP3]

I got in by entering my last UK address. I have 19 full years of contributions and 19 years where I didn’t pay enough.

I wish there was a link to pay missing contributions. All there was was an 0800 number - no use to me overseas.

I will look for a state pension office address next.

Join up to a Skype subscription ($2.99 per month from memory, may even be a free month trial) and call from there.