Can I get an application form to pay extra contributions to get the full English pension.
Ms C.F.
As you’ll know by now the clock is ticking fast on the deadline to apply to pay voluntary national insurance contributions going back to 2006 either to secure a UK state pension at all or to enhance the pension you will get at the age of 66 or 67.
As a result, this is probably the last in the series of questions on the application process that we will be publishing, although there will be other elements of paying voluntary UK national insurance that will be relevant in the coming weeks.
The key thing to note is that you have to have the application in by Saturday (which, I would advise, really means close of business tomorrow to be sure). You can apply using a paper Form CF83 or an online version of the same which you can find here.
This really is the last chance for possibly hundreds of thousands of people who worked either in Britain or Northern Ireland at any time since the early 1970s to lock in what must be one of the biggest “no-brainer” investments you are likely to come across.
The deadline has already been extended a couple of times and no further extension is likely - not least as I suspect the British never really considered the wave of applications they would receive from people in Ireland and other countries.
Clearly, given the limited time available, you will not get a paper form to them in time so online is really your only option at this point.
Assuming you meet the basic criteria – you have worked three years consecutively in the UK or you have three years of national insurance over a longer period – you should be able to “buy back” any year between 2006 and now in which you have not already paid national insurance.
There is another criteria – age. If you were a man born before April 5th, 1951 or a woman born before April 5th, 1953, you will not qualify as you will have hit retirement age under the old pre-2016 UK state pension arrangements.
Note, you are only eligible to buy back years after you first worked in the UK. So if you first worked there in 2009, you will not be able to buy back years in the 2006-2008 window. Yes, I have heard that some people have been allowed to do so but that seems to be in error and may well be amended down the line.
If you worked there right up to the time you left the UK and worked on your return to Ireland or some other country, you should be eligible for the cheaper Class 2 contributions which will cost £3.45 per week acquired, or £179.40 per year.
Otherwise, you are buying at Class 3 which costs £17.45 a week or £907.40 per year acquired.
The key is your status in the particular year you are buying back. If you came home in 2010 and worked for five years before leaving the workforce voluntarily or otherwise, you should be able to pay at Class 2 for the five years you were working, and Class 3 for any other years being purchased.
[ Am I too old to buy back UK pension years?Opens in new window ]
A number of people who have applied thinking they were due to pay at Class 2 have been told they are Class 3. In most cases, this appears to be an error by the UK authorities and should be appealed.
However, you may find you need to make the payment upfront under protest – assuming you have the funds – even as you appeal. As John Ring at Xtrapension, a Galway-based financial adviser who has been active in this area, notes, we are pretty much in uncharted territory as far as appeals go.
In any case, if you are claiming at Class 2, the Department of Work and Pensions or HMRC, the UK Revenue, will ultimately want proof that you are eligible. That proof is your PRSI record – or similar social insurance record from any other country you worked in – which shows when you have been working (and paying social insurance) and when you have not.
[ Will paying voluntary UK national insurance cancel out my PRSI payments?Opens in new window ]
Assuming you returned to Ireland, you’ll need to get a copy of your PRSI record from the Department of Social Protection PRSI records office in Buncrana, Co Donegal to show you were working here once you left the UK.
The easiest way of doing that is via MyWelfare.ie as long as you have a verified GovID. If not, you can apply by post to PRSI Records, Department of Social Protection, McCarter’s Road, Ardaravan, Buncrana, Donegal. It will take about 10 working days to get to you.
Given how close to the deadline you are, I would also advise filling out the call back form – available here – which UK authorities say will be accepted as evidence that you have made the deadline. It will at least give you some time to get any information you require together.
Keep screenshots / photocopies of anything you file – including the online Form CF83 that I mentioned earlier.
And be aware that when they do call bank, you are likely to have only 31 days to complete the process, including paying for any years acquired through voluntary contributions.
However, if reports I am hearing elsewhere are anything to go by, you could be waiting. One reader who requested a call back and also applied online to make back payments in the past 10 days or so was told he can expect a reply in September!
Another reader who had actually made the payments to secure his enhanced pension was told recently that it cold be July of next year before his UK national insurance record was updated to reflect the additional pension payment due.
Having said that, once the tsunami of paperwork subsides when the deadline passes this weekend, I expect the UK authorities will make some of that time back. You need to ensure everything is in order to make the payment when you get the call back, so don’t be tempted just to file the application and leave things sit.
All is not lost for anyone who does miss the deadline. While you won’t be able to buy back the 18 years of contributions available under this transition period deal, you still have the right to pay voluntary contributions for any gaps in your record over the past six years.
And of course, you can continue to make such voluntary payments into the future which is certainly something worth considering if they are still working and therefore subject to the cheaper Class 2 buyback rate.
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
