UK state pension

You can call them if you want a big phone bill but you should get a letter back eventually stating if the application has been approved and at what rate. iirc mine took over 6 months.

Thank you! I will wait a few more months.

From a landline I've been on hold for over an hour.

Possibly there is something going on with your phone / line. Ive been on hold for nearly an hour also.

Yes but 11 Minutes, been on to my phone company they are looking in to it, but promising I got 2 calls answer in 7 minutes on hold.

Can you post the link to the online form?

I can’t post the link, you access after you log in to HM Revenue site with your revenue id.

1. go to gov.uk
2. search for "ni38"
3. in the results you will see "Apply to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions when abroad (CF83)". Click that.
4. read through the page outlining how to apply online until you see a big green button that says "Apply now >"

Thats it. You will be asked to register with your NIN etc. or login with your uk gov service ID at some point if you havent already done so.

I called on Friday to enquire about the payment I made in early April that still hadn't been allocated.

The person I spoke to could see that the payment had been received and the note about what years it should be allocated to, however she was unclear as to why it hadn't been done yet.

She raised a query to another team to fix it.

As the poster above says, it's worth following up

Staff in the Pensions Centre UK are snowed under with correspondence from people who worked in the UK,including their own citizens who live all over the world.It all takes time to get to open the actual correspondence from people,verifying it and deciding how to respond.The UK pensions people are a hell of a lot better than their brethren in the Republic.

Online: there is a link on gov.uk and search for state pension.Don't think it will be any quicker

Yip quick turnaround for me after applying online. Letter back inside a month.

I wonder if someone could advise on this please and apologies in advance for being a bit thick!!

I have been advised by HMRC that I can buy back years and pay for years going forward. I'm not sure if I need to buy all of them. Most are at the lower rate but I had some periods of unemployment when on maternity leave which coincides with the higher rates on my list so I'm presuming that's what it is.

Can someone advise how many years I actually need to buy back to get the full pension? The forecast states that if I contribute until retirement I will get £195 and I could increase this to the full £221 - does this mean that if I don't buy back any, but continue to buy from now on, I'd get £195?

I'm having trouble getting through to them so am chancing asking here in case it's really obvious what I should do!

Attaching letters that show exactly what they've said. I'm 50 and in full time employment here. Thanks.

Thank you. I lived in the UK for 7 years and worked all of that time but on their letter it says "our records show you have 11 qualifying years of NICS up to 5 April 2024"

I'm worried about overpaying as I'm sure they'll just take the money and say nothing!

I'm also wondering about the forecast when it says if I pay now up to retirement I could get £195 a week and I can increase this to £221 - that's not a huge difference - so do I need to buy back any at all or just pay from now on?

As things stand currently both are treated separately. You can claim full entitlement on both if you've made the necessary contributions.

You could just pay the future contributions,but who's to say that they will all the lower rate going forward??? If I were in your situation I would pay the cheapest of the past years and pay going forward untill I had 35 years.. you know where you stand money wise paying what's on your statement, you don't know what will change going forward.