Class 2 or Class 3

My wife worked for over 10 years before taking time off with the children in their early pre-school years, then moved out of the UK and returned to full time work. She has recently applied to pay Voluntary Contributions for gaps in her NI Contributions and has been informed that she needs to pay class 3 which are significantly more expensive than the Class 2 contributions. Had she not taken time off to look after our pre-school children she would have been entitled to pay for Class 2 NI contributions for her UK Pension. My question is - is there a way to get this re-assessed as home care for children should not dis-advantaged like this?

Hi,
There are certain conditions that must be met in order to be eligible to pay at the voluntary Class 2 rate.
Please refer to the NI38 leaflet - Social Security abroad: NI38 Under the section ‘Paying voluntary National Insurance contributions while you’re abroad’ this
states that ‘immediately before going abroad, you were ordinarily an employed or self-employed earner in the UK’.
If you feel that your wife’s application has not been correctly assessed, she would need to write to HMRC stating the reasons why she thinks she meets the conditions set out in the NI38.
The address to write to is:
National Insurance Contributions and Employer Office
International Caseworker department
PT Operations North East England
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1AN
Thank you.