UK, NIC voluntary contributions

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
Hey folks,

anybody have experience paying voluntary NIC contributions while living abroad ?

I have UK passport, have been living in the UK for 6 years and moved to ch.

my aim is to keep paying NIC and hopefully get UK pension once I am getting 65+ (or whatever limit there is).

Alexey

2
yup. there's a thread on here plus helpful guidance from hmrc. if eligible for class 2 nic then you can contribute cheaply.

3
Yes there are a few threads on class 2 voluntary contributions on here which are helpful! I was looking to do the same and have paid voluntary payments for gaps from previous years. Create an account with HMRC to see if you have any underpayments from previous years as it could be cheaper to pay a year off where you were just under. I did the NI38 form to pay voluntary payments for this tax year, Be warned HMRC seem to be absolutely swamped and are taking ages to do anything, these payments probably won't be a priority so get your NI38 form sent in quickly would be my advice.

4
I actually applied to HMRC a few months ago for this, and received the reply this weekend. I can pay in 14 years of voluntary contributions to date, bringing my total UK pension contribution years to 19 and therefore a nice little extra in UK state pension from 67.

5
Apply for class 2 contributions and its about 140/150 quid a year. At that rate back pay as much as you can.

At some point the Gov will probably abolish class 2. Then you'll need to decide if its worthwhile paying 700 or 800 pound a year. Currently with class 2 its absolutely worth it.

One off payment (each year) of say 145 pound gets you a yearly payment of 250 (and increasing) from retirement to death.

You'll need a minimum of 11 years of contributions to be able to get any payment from the UK. Currently each year buys you 1/35th of the full pension. And you'll need obviously 35 years to claim the full amount. Currently the Swiss and the UK pensions are separate, so you would get both state pensions, but they will be administered through only the one country - as it stands, no idea if Brexit or anything in the future changes that.

The amount of years you must pay in, the age you can claim it, and the amount you have to pay will all almost certainly change and not for the better. But its so cheap and it governmental so it is still very interesting

6
There's also a risk that in the future pension benefits get means-tested. So I rely on it only as an emergency SHTF contingency if I lose everything else.

7

Well this risk took a step closer.

Means testing state pension one idea to plug budget.