Max out UK.
Max pillar one pension!
And it was news to me although I’ve been getting State Pension from DWP for 15 years that it’s not monthly but every 4 weeks: thus 13x a year.
If I left my uk pension at 9 years (which it is currently) does that mean they'd be counted as more valuable Swiss years?
Could it be worth not adding more UK years?
In previous discussions on this topic I had been under the impression that I could buy back missing UK years and continue to contribute, so that I would get the full UK pension, plus I would get whatever pension I am due from the Swiss system for what I estimate will be 21 years of contributions (according to the online calculator CHF 1250 a month). I already have 10 year's of full contributions in the UK.
Are you saying this is not the case?
With a couple of rare exceptions you cannot pay missing contributions beyond the past six years.
Having credit for at least ten years of UK State Pension makes that pension eligibility totally independent of the Swiss, or any other, system in which you have qualified for a pension. Totalisation enters the picture where you have a few years in a treaty country but not enough for a pension. And as I wrote earlier you cannot totalise for a year in which you already have full credit in that other system (i.e. UK State Pension).
As you have ten years of UK credits you are entitled to something (currently around £200 or so a month). You can voluntarily pay Class 2 or 3 (as the case may be based on your circumstances and eligibility) until you have the maximum 35 years. https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-nationa...-contributions but don't be confused: you can not only pay missing back contributions but all future years. There's no point in paying for more than 35 years, that's the maximum credit.
The link I gave you leads to the application forms for Class 2 & 3. This is for Class 3: https://assets.publishing.service.go...370/CA5603.pdf
As I have written, the rules are arcane and you may want to speak to the authorities first: +44 191 203 7010
You don't need to pay class 3 if you are working here in CH.
This is where you need to contact them and start the process to pay class 2.
https://www.gov.uk/pay-voluntary-cla...e/bank-details
As others have said, it's better (cheaper) to pay Class 2 if you can. The rules are arcane.
https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-if-you-go-abroad
While you can claim exemption from NICs if you work in a Totalisation Treaty country, if you subject yourself to voluntary contributions that page (despite its notation of exemption in Treaty countries) can be read as stating that for the first 52 weeks you will be taxed at the rate of Class 1, the rate paid by employed persons and their employers in the UK.
https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-if-you-go-abroad
I have not seen this applied to those seeking to pay Class 3 contributions, and the work that I have done was in relation to employers seconding persons abroad and agreeing to pay their NICs (both parts) while they were abroad.
For the low paid -- such as missionaries I worked with -- the contributions were cheap, sometimes close to zero. For highly paid executives it can be costly.
https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/how-much-you-pay
After this there will be a new Health and Social Care levy. They have not mentioned if they will adjust the current situation with voluntary payments.
As a reminder, if you were born after 1951, you have another @ 18 months where you have the opportunity to back pay from 2006 to 2016 , so 10 years or one third of the state pension. If you were working here, or anywhere EEA I guess, this would cost @£2500 in total and give you a yearly UK pension payment of +£3000
After April 2023, this window of opportunity closes.
I've just filled in the form for my wife. She's probably got around 14 year's contribution in the UK as well.
One of my friends got a refusal for class 2, but I don't know the details as to why.
The confusion was that the letter was headed "Class 3 NI contributions".
I called the helpline, and the advisor assured me that the letter is in error, he can see the £7 shortfall on my NI contributions and it really is class 2 payments I'm making.
Tip: when I've called between 9:30 and 10:30 UK time, I've got through to a real person within about 5 minutes. (Unfortunately they have a lot of automated spiel before you get into the call queue).
You submit form CF83 (see https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ty-abroad-ni38 ) and that, at some point, generates a schedule of class 3 payments that you can make together with instructions on how to pay. It invites you to provide further information if, for any of those years, you wish to pay class 2 payments instead. Responding to that generates a second schedule including the "class 2" years you may be entitled to. You pay that and you get a confirmation that the payments have been assigned to the years according to the schedule.
Between each of those stages I had to make at least one call. Having made the call, something did usually happen with a few days.
Because I was close to retirement age at the time I submitted the original form, my case transferred from the HM Revenue & customs to the Department of Works and Pensions. That caused a significant delay at the start and that is when I learned that if you don't chase it up, your application can sit at the back of a queue.
I found it helpful to keep a systematic record of my phone conversations.
The 'active' part of the process (that is excluding the initial delay) was about 3 months.
From what I understand from the 2 schedules I received, the possibility of buying back contributions for 2017 and before disappears on the 05. April 2023. That may be personalised for me though.