I am one of the many who found your article about UK NI top-up payments last month very helpful and interesting. As I appear to be eligible to apply, I set up the Government Gateway and completed CF83 online. I received an email indicating they would write to me, all as set out in your article.
As I had not yet received anything further in writing, I checked online today and it tells me I can expect a reply on August 18th, 2025 – after the April 5th deadline for making top-up payments. (They are currently working on requests submitted in October.)
I was just curious if you had encountered this timing issue. It would be nice to think you could calculate and pay the relevant amount without waiting to hear from them, but that doesn’t seem likely. I do have 24 years paid up, so all is not lost!
Mr M.W.
The reader response to the pieces we have done on the option to buy back years of UK national insurance to either qualify for or boost the pension you could get from the UK in retirement is a strong indicator of just how many people in Ireland are affected.
Even allowing for the fact that it excludes many older people who emigrated there for work in the 1960s and early 1970s because you must have been born after April 6th, 1951, as a man or April 6th, 1953, as a woman, it is clear that hundreds of thousands of Irish people could benefit from what is, for most, a no-brainer.
Because of the looming deadline to which you refer – three weeks away, on April 5th – and the fact that it will take time for people to gather the information required, I am going to address a couple of questions on the subject this week.
I can understand the alarm you felt when you heard nothing – exacerbated when you chased it up and discovered it could be four months past the deadline before they get to your file – but I can reassure you that you are in a good place.
[ What will it cost me to buy back UK national insurance?Opens in new window ]
First, as you say, you already have 24 years of national insurance payments so you already qualify for a 68 per cent pro-rata UK state pension when you turn 66. Second, having checked with the team at XtraPension in Galway who are heavily involved in assisting Irish people to secure the UK pension to which they are entitled, I can confirm that you have your foot in the door well ahead of the deadline.
The UK Revenue and state pension offices have been overwhelmed by the response to that opportunity, so much so that the deadline has already been pushed back twice.
They are determined not to let that formal deadline slip again, but they have said that anyone who at least fills out an online form – here – before April 5th to request a call-back from their people will be considered as having met the deadline even where they have little idea of how much it will cost them or have paid no money.
John Ring at XtraPension says that as you have filled in your forms well ahead of deadline and received email confirmation that they will get back to you, you have nothing to worry about in terms of the April 5th cut-off.
He was not surprised by the delays you mentioned as his team has been experiencing similar contact dates on applications they are processing.
As to how much this will cost you, you can buy back a maximum of 11 years to reach the maximum UK state pension for which you need 35 years of national insurance contributions – more generous than our 40-year requirement.
Those 11 years must relate to gaps in your UK national insurance record dating back to April 6th, 2006. If a chunk of the 24 years on your record relate to those years, clearly, you cannot double pay: it is only for the years in that window.
Assuming you have 11 “gap” years in that window and that you were working in the UK up to the time you left the country and have worked since, you should be eligible for Class 2 contributions at £3.45 a week – or £1,973.40.
If you were not working when you left the UK, you will be looking at Class 3 contributions of £17.45 a week, or £9,981.40. The same is true for any years on which you have claimed welfare, including pension, even if you were working up to your departure from the UK.
Clearly what that means in euro terms depends on the exchange rate when you eventually make the payment.
What do you get for that? The full UK state pension is currently worth £221.20 a week. That figure is due to rise from April 6th to £230.25 which, in today’s money converts to around €273.40, just ahead of the Irish rate.
And there is nothing to prevent you also claiming an Irish State pension as long as your PRSI record separately qualifies you for that.
How much pension will I get?
I obtained my UK pension forecast two years ago which noted I have nine years on my record up to 2022 and provided a forecast of £5,257 annually should I contribute for another 11 years.
I have two questions. I worked in the UK from 1989 to 1994, when I returned to Ireland, so I’m confused that it indicates I have nine years on my record since I only worked in the UK for five years.
It states I need a minimum of 10 years to receive any pension so, if having nine is accurate, this suggests I would need to contribute one year’s payable gap to be eligible. How do I find out what the payable pension forecast would be with the then 10-years record so I can assess if this is financially worthwhile?
Mr B.W.
There are a few things here. Most importantly, this projection you have is on the basis of your existing record and you paying national insurance contributions going forward until you reach retirement age. It has nothing to do with purchasing back gap years.
The letter you got does mention that option but, as of now, on the basis of that letter, you have not requested a calculation of what that would cost – nor have you applied to purchase gap years.
You have only three weeks to do so. At the least, you should request a call-back by filing in this online form. That will at least keep open the option of paying back gap years. Given you left the UK in 1994, you are eligible to buy back as many as 17 years of UK state pension entitlement.
[ Boosting my UK state pension: do I pay Class 2 or Class 3?Opens in new window ]
I cannot square the nine years on their records with your five-year work record – and they unhelpfully do not break contributions down year-by-year in the same way our PRSI records office does – but assuming they know what they are talking about, that means you could reach a total of 26 years of national insurance contributions under the current buy-back offer, or just shy of 75 per cent of the full UK weekly rate at the time you retire.
The other thing to note is the pension forecast figure you have been given. Again, I cannot precisely replicate that forecast, and for all the “easy access” information they provide the UK department of work and pensions is very poor on giving the detail of how they crunch their numbers.
However, that figure is based on the UK state pension rate at the time you contacted them – 2022/23 – on the basis of your nine years of stamps and presuming you pay UK national insurance going forward until you retire. Using today’s full UK state pension figure of £221.20, and applying that same metric, you would get £126.40 a week or £6,573 a year.
Please note all figures are in sterling.
On the basis of the increase in UK state pension next month to £230.25, your forecast would be £131.57 a week, or £6,842 a year.
Buying back those 11 years will cost you £1,973.40 if you are in employment or as much as £9,981.40 if you had never worked since you came home.
On your question of what would happen if you just bought one year to hit the 10-year minimum threshold, that would give you a weekly pension of £63.20 a week at today’s rates, or £3,284 a year.
What you would get into your hand depends on what the UK state pension rate is in 2034. Like here, the State pension tends to increase each year, but all we can work on is today’s figures for illustrative purposes – as the UK authorities did in the forecasts they sent you two years ago.
Buying that one year will cost you just £179.40 if you are working, or £907.40 otherwise.
As you currently fall shy of qualifying for any UK pension, doing so is a no-brainer. But if you are working, it makes sense to buy back as many of the 17 years as you can afford.
And remember, even then, you still have the option of also paying in over the next nine years to secure a maximum UK state pension.
But the clock is ticking. The forecast you have just tells you what you can do if you pay national insurance from the date of that letter onwards to the time you turn 66, not plugging gaps in your record over past years.
As far as the UK authorities are concerned, you have made no inquiry or application in relation to buying back years to plug gaps in your pension. If you do not do so by April 5th – at least requesting a call-back from their team using the form I mention above – that option will be closed to you.
Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street Dublin 2, or by email to dominic.coyle@irishtimes.com with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice
