UK state pension

Hoping someone can help please

Like others on here, I have worked/paid UK contributions in two tax years. The HMRC app is quoting "full year" for these years, whereas the following year shows "year is not full". I believe this may mean zero as later years show the same. This means I have just 2 qualifying years.

I restarted work in ireland in that third year having been in employment in Ireland priot to UK 2 years.

Having got in just before 5th April deadline, they have now confirmed i can backpay 19 years at class 3 (higher rate).

A phone call to the NI line suggests that because i dont have 3 qualifying years I must pay class 3 for ALL years (19 back pay and any future later years). The cost is circa £16k. The juvenile years will apparently count towards the 10 year minimum but not towards the 3 year qualifying period.

Q1) has anyone else a similar scenario where they may have succeeded on gaining agreement with HMRC to pay class 2 for ANY of the back pay years ?

Q2) if I now pay the class 3 contributions for perhaps 8 years to bring me to 10 minimum contributions years (or alternatively just pay perhaps 5 years if I choose to rely on the juvenile credit years), is there a chance HMRC could take my contributions now but disallow a pension at retirement due tothe need to have 3 qualifying years of paid contributions ?

Very grateful to hear of any shared experiences

sent a private message to you there yaya000. You can be approved for class 2 if you fulfil the criteria of leaving the uk immeaditly and commencing employment in one of the satisfying countries . In that case they may use your Irish contributions as consideration . I think immeaditly might be interpreted differently depending on the review case worker . Appeal, what harm can it do .
edit: that was if you applied before. April 5 this year.

yayaya000, I also only worked in the UK for two years, although I was there over 3 calendar years. I originally didn't think this UK pension applied to me at all.

When I signed up to see my status, I had 5 years paid contributions (my actual 2 and the bonus 3), my understanding was from research that the bonus ones are the same as the really paid ones when it comes to reaching the minimum three years to be to pay extra contributions.

This section, I believe explains it:

If you live or work abroad (or have previously)

To pay Class 2 or Class 3 voluntary contributions you must have either:

• previously lived in the UK for 3 years in a row
• paid contributions or had Class 2 contributions treated as having been paid for at least 3 years

To pay Class 2 voluntary contributions both of the following must also apply:

• you worked in the UK immediately before leaving
• you’re currently working abroad (or you worked while you were abroad)

Between November 2017 and April 2019, HMRC’s guidance was incorrect. It said all these conditions must be true. If you did not apply or your application was refused because of the incorrect guidance, you may be able to pay at the original rates. Explain your situation when you apply.

From: https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/who-can-pay-voluntary-contributions?step-by-step-nav=c0ff9296-e91e-40d1-97bd-008026e90426

To be able to pay class 2, the two important things are:

1. You must have worked in the UK up until the point when you left the UK (I assume there's a grace period of a week or two)
2. You must have worked in Ireland for the years in which you'll get class 2

You DON'T have to have started working in Ireland straight away when you left the UK. (I didn't. It was a couple of years before I started working again) If they weren't too long ago, I assume I could have paid class 3 for those non working years.

Hi,

As someone has said you can pay class 2 once you left work immediately before leaving the country and can pay class 2 once you are working in Ireland during those years.

My wife got a letter which I posted up on here a few pages back. It was from HMRC stating she did not have enough years worked in the UK but she can use years worked in another EU country to count towards the 3 years.

So she had to prove she worked in Ireland to make her qualify for the UK pension and to pay class 2. Unfortunately showing them her prsi contributions wasn't enough so we had to actually send p60, payslips and p45 as proof she worked in another EU country.

If you are sending a letter then I would list employer name and dates you started -finished working with them along with the prsi contributions statement.

It's up to you to prove you are entitled to pay class 2. So anything you have that will prove it you should put together and send for appeal. I had a letter from my UK employer stating when I left and reason for leaving was "relocating" I then had ferry tickets showing when I left. I had all these documents to avoid paying VRT to revenue 🤣 so they came in handy for this as well

That's exactly what I have done, sent a letter with breadown. They received the letter but they didn't update my record yet. I guess I just need to wait.

I’ve done that twice and still no update showing on my account, although it’s only been 6–7 months and it looks like it can take a lot longer to be processed.

Apologies in advance. I'm at little confused looking at the website. I made a payment for 2024/25 about 3 months ago.

Does "Full year" mean they've received it and updated my account?