UK state pension

Just a lot of demands on any spare cash but yes, as I said before, if I had it now would happily pay it all !

It's a great return ..wishing us all long life and much happiness 🥰

Got my letter yesterday too. Now I need to find about 13k from somewhere

Hi,

I managed to set up the app/online access. It is possible with an Irish passport. Lots of toing & froing between id app and website but it does work and should save you the 60min+ waits on calls.

However I keep getting the Sorry, there is a problem with the service message when trying to access to Pension Statement on uk.gov. The last time I tried to ring they told me there was some lock on my account and they would send my an update by post. Never came. I'm guessing it's the same lock. Has anyone managed to get this 'lock' or whatever it is removed and been able to subsequently view pension records, benefits, contributions. I believe this is something to do with additional voluntary contributions (which I have made)

I think I'm fine and up-to-date, I have a letter from July 20224 but just nervous as there is a lot of money at stake!

After submitting the online form to apply how long were people waiting for an update?

I made my payment last April. Was updated online about 2 weeks ago after I rang them.

All of my remaining years say Class 3, despite receiving confirmation of Class 2 in February 2024. This is standard.

Paid for 15 back years yesterday via Revolut Sterling account, I 'll give them a call maybe Friday to see if I can get through to tell them which years to allocate against, is 2 days enough time or would it be best to wait til next week?

my hmrc statement finally updated. paid my back prsi dec 17 2024. logged in yesterday and pension jumped from £88 to £174. result!

That's the account I just made payment to. I had 17 years in the UK before I moved to Ireland and I was able to pay 11 years at class 2 from 2006 onward. The (incredibly helpful!) guy I spoke to said I'll need to apply again to pay going forward (to make up the remaining 7 years) and they'll send me a bill at the end of each tax year.

btw - the number I used was +441912037010. Ask to speak to an international case worker.

Oh, that's quick. They told me a year. I must check. I'll be dead from the worry before I retire with all this stuff. 🙄

Myself and my wife have our uk statements and she has 10 qualifying years and I have 8 years .We just wondering do we have to pay the 18 years now before 5th april which it says without penalties or can we pay 13 years which statement says we can also and pay the remaining 5 one every year ?

Anyone know if this Is this unique to the UK or do other countries do something similar?

If you were a 20 year old starting you, you could work 3-5 years in a handful of countries, top up your pension in each of those countries and then have multiple full state pensions when you are 65. suppose we will find out in a few years when the digital nomads start retiring.

The only problem is when people are 20 they don't think of stuff like that 😂 it has always been available to pay voluntary contributions in the UK but look how many people didn't do it (including myself but I only left UK in 2016) The only different thing now was they extended it from 6 to 10 years back dated as they brought a new pension system in 2016.

My dad, has an Irish Pension, UK pension, Italian pension and a Dutch pension not all full ones mind you. So this is nothing new.

Hi N64, all that's going on here doesn't really affect you. Why you may ask? Because you only finished working in the UK last March. What's going on at the moment and the deadline is for people trying to claim for years all the way back to 2006.

No it's not 3 years you have 6 years to make voluntary contributions The deadline is 5 April each year.

For example, you have until 5 April 2030 to make up for gaps for the tax year 2023 to 2024

So relax take your time, read the forum and wait for all this craziness to blow over. 👍👍

If you finished working and took up work in Ireland when you came back last March then class 2 is the way to go and you should apply for this. Don't let them try get you on class 3 as it's 5 times more expensive.

Anyone considered the risks on this...

1. You might not live past 67yrs or whatever the pension age will be. I've underlying health problems and doubt I'll get to 70yrs. Let alone Russa/ north korea starting ww3 in the mean time.

2. UK is doing bad economically. With all these ex pat Irish claiming this golden pension for little back payments, I wouldn't be surprised if the plug was pulled and we get nothing. Morally for people who worked 3 yrs in the UK I can't see why they should get a full state pension for relatively low payments considering class 2 rates.

3. You often hear in Ireland of pension fraud where kids claim a dead parents pension for years after parents death. Usually when the 100yr old parent gets a letter from the President and the department turns up. I can't see the HMRC just blindly making payments to us in Ireland without checks.

There may be other risks that I haven't considered

They can't unilaterally withdraw a valid pension. So there'd be no concern there. They are not doing great economically in a current sense of the word. USA would be the same, if not worse. Germany would also fall into that category at the moment. The problem is you have sensationalist headline and story writers in the media who wouldn't pass an inter cert economics paper, writing these stories.

The death risk is always there. Pension and life insurance companies always calculate for that as do countries - hence "average life expectancy".

If someone is ill and told that their life expectancy is 70 at most, then I'd be more concentrating on enjoying what is left than being concerned about a UK pension.

The reason it is so popular here is that Irish bilateral agreements with the UK literally allowed Irish people jump on a flight on Monday morning and be legally working that same day anywhere in the UK and no immigration paperwork required. No other country had that access to the UK employment market.

So from the early 80's to early 90's you had in excess of 500,000 Irish people go to the UK and all of those are nearing retirement age and realising there's free money to be had from a small investment if they worked in the UK for at least 3 years (consecutively). (also applies to all other years, but 80's/90's were the big emmigration years)