Additional 3 years of contributions due to a bug

Hi, Last year I discovered that my national insurance record contains 3 additional years - the year-by-year breakdown is correct and shows X full years, but the summary says X+3 years of full contributions. When I called, the operator told me that they are aware of this - there was a bug in the system at some point which erroneously added 3 years, they fixed the bug but will not remove the 3 years, so I will have the extra 3 years permanently. I don't know who was affected, some other people I know don't have this "issue", so maybe I am in a narrow window of foreigners of certain age moving to the UK in 2005. Of course this is only positive for me, but it creates complications. I now live in another country where I should let them know of previous pension contributions abroad, and I'm not sure what to write about the UK :). I can try to explain the bug but I'm not sure they will believe me. I can say I worked for X years, but my record summary says X+3. I can say I worked for X+3 years but the 3 years don't show up in the year-by-year breakdown, I don't know what dates to put for them. Is there any official guidance about this? For example, an official statement about the bug that I can forward to stakeholders. Or which 3 years do those extra contributions refer to? I seem to remember the operator said it was for 16-18 birthday but not sure. Thanks!

Actually I discovered the answer after searching for a while so writing it here if someone else finds this thread - it's the "starting credits" concept where you get NI contributions for the tax years of your 16-18 birthday. This was in effect from 1975 and stopped for people turning 16 after (not sure if including?) 2011.

Hi,
Unfortunately we are unable to give a specific response to you via this Forum.  
We can give a general explanation of this issue and would advise that you write to our Individuals Caseworker Team who can look into your record and provide you with a suitable response based on your circumstances.  
Until 5 April 2010, to protect the National Insurance(NI) records of students who stayed in full time education for tax years commencing on or after 6 April 1975, regulation 4 (of the Social Security Regulations 1975) allowed a customer to be credited with Class 3 NICs, which count for State Pension purposes.
These starting credits (Juvenile credits) could be awarded for the full three tax years containing their 16th, 17th and 18th birthdays, whether or not the young person was in full time education, and were automatically recorded on the National Insurance and PAYE Service(NPS) account.  
This will then be reflected through your Personal Tax Account when you view your NI record.  However, the conditions for these credits are that you must have been resident in UK at the time the credits are awarded and registered for a UK NI account.  
If you come from abroad and your Date of Entry into the UK scheme falls after these years, there will be a Flag set on the system to allow the “discounting” of these credits and have them removed.  
The Personal Tax Account view of your NI record may still reflect these credits until they have actually been removed.  
The address to write to for specific confirmation is:  
Individual Caseworker, PT Operations North East England. BX9 1AN
Thank you.

Hi, I’m so glad I’ve found this thread as we’ve just come across the exact same issue! Moved to the U.K. in 2004, left in 2012 so contributed 8 years but the summary is saying 11. Which in our case makes a huge difference as it entitles us to a pension, which is why we were looking, with a view to paying the missing 2 years to get to 10!! Did you ever get a confirmation from the address above? Thanks in advance