National Insurance Contributions / State Pension

[Wallasey Runner]

You have not lightly given to the taxman.

You have cleverly calculated that the so called taxman will pay you back several times over if you hand him some money.

You are not hard done by this service.

On the contrary you have wisely done extremely well out of it, and I don’t blame you for one moment.

So, please tell it as it is. The so called taxman has offered you a fantastic no lose one way bet which you quite rightly have accepted.

You are right, but as in all things the man maths applies.

By paying an amount asked for by HMRC I will get an extra £40 a week at 67. If I continue to live in a little over 2.5 years after my 67th birthday I will have have got that money back. If I live to 95 it will probably be one of the better decisions of my life, if I drop dead in the next 6 months it will almost certainly have been one of the worst.

When I accepted early retirement the max was 30 years, I had 35. I did not expect the rules to change, but they did.

The conflict was that I retired at 51 and have paid nothing since, therefore if I am paid £40 per week short it is something which I can live with.

There is no right or wrong answer here and I certainly don’t feel like I have won anything, but we have to occasionally stick our finger in the air and see which way the wind blows.

[noTAGlove]

if I drop dead in the next 6 months it will almost certainly have been one of the worst.

I am sure it will not feature highly if you are 6 ft under and pushing up daisies.

Enjoy your extra retirement money. You have beat the system.

[Wallasey Runner]

I am sure it will not feature highly if you are 6 ft under and pushing up daisies.

The family might think differently, that money would have paid for a funeral.

Not sure why you think this is some sort of victory.

[jukeboxs]

...

So, please tell it as it is. The so called taxman has offered you a fantastic no lose one way bet which you quite rightly have accepted.

What a stupid comment.

[Halitosis]

You have beat the system.

Eh? WR - and all of us - work with the system, not against it. Why be so combative?

[thenikjones]

Is there any qualifying points you need to be able to pay for any shortfalls? The missus is a stay at home wife, can I just pay 35 years worth of contributions over the years? And if we retired overseas could I pay the difference when we are there? On my side I'll get the full amount but the missus won't qualify for anything.

Does she have an NI number? If not then I assume she's out of luck (unless she gets one)

If she is then, as you have a child, she can register for Child Benefit, tick "don't pay me the money" and she should get a year of NI credited until your child turns minimum 16 years old

You CAN be paid the money but it is an extra thing to go onto your tax return, even if she gets the money, as YOU earn >£60k/year

From here: https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit

By claiming Child Benefit, you can get:

an allowance paid to you for each child - you’ll usually get it every 4 weeks
National Insurance credits which count towards your State Pension
a National Insurance number for your child without them having to apply for one - they’ll usually get the number shortly before they turn 16 years old
If you choose not to get Child Benefit payments, you should still make a claim to get the other advantages.

[ryanb741]

I've seen that as my wife is registered as our disabled son's carer she automatically gets NI credits which is handy. I guess once he is 16 (in 7 years) I can just pay in every year the amount for a further year's NI until her retirement age which is still 26 years away (even if for 10 of those years we will likely be retired overseas in Thailand). Looks like she has been registered as his carer automatically for the last 3 years so by doing this she would get 29 years NI credit for her pension