national insurance record: Year is not full

In my national insurance record it's showing: 2008 to 2009 Year is not full We are checking this year to see if it counts towards your pension. We’ll update your record when this is finished, you do not need to do anything. It's been showing this for many years. I tried to contact HMRC Future Pension Centre helpline to find out if I can make a voluntary contribution for this year if it isn't full, but the phone line hangs up on me every time. What can I do to get the info on this year and make a payment (if needed)? I am aware this needs to be done before April 6th, so time is running out! Thanks

HMRC, would you please reply to my enquiry. Many thanks.

The deadline has been extended till July 31 see money saving expert forum thread on this topic.

Hi homework23,

The deadline for paying voluntary National Insurance contributions for that tax year has been extended to 31/07/2023.

You will need to check with the Future Pension Centre if paying for that year will benefit you. If you pay without checking with them and your pension does not increase, you won’t be entitled to a refund so it is important that you obtain that information before sending any payments to HMRC.

You should also contact our National Insurance team for us to check that year and confirm if there is a shortfall or not. 

National Insurance: general enquiries

Thank you.

Its all very well telling us to contact Future Pensions, but as everyone has pointed out you can't get through as they never answer the phone. I've been trying to call them since January. Unless you address this issue it's not clear what good extending the deadline does except to waste even more time.

My contributions list has been paid in full until last week, where it has suddenly changed to 2014/2015 not paid in full . My husbands is exactly the same, all fine then suddenly both of ours saying that year was not paid in full. We know they are - please advise what we can do?

I sent a cheque to HMRC to pay contributions towards my state pension for missed years. This cheque was cashed by them 7 weeks ago, but my records have not been updated. Has anyone had experience of this and how long it takes for your records to be updated.

Hi Lisa Philp,

Unfortunately the nature of this enquiry must be investigated and therefore you will have to either telephone the NI helpline on 0300 200 3500,
or write into us, the address to write to is

Individuals Caseworker
HMRC
PT Operations 
NIC&EO
BX9 1AN

Thank you
 

Hi Jackie Pope,

We are currently experiencing a high volume of payments at present.  
The timescale for allocating to a National Insurance payments to a record is 8 weeks.  
As you are near that timescale I would advise that you will need to call the NI Helpline on 0300 2003500.

Thank you.

Anyone struggling to contact future pensions,ring them at exactly 8.00am and you will get through,HMRC unfortunately,is at least 60 mins before you will get to speak to an advisor .

I have the same issue. I was on course to hit the 35-year threshold this year, then my tax year 2000–2001, which had shown up as 'Full year' in November suddenly appeared as 'Year is not full'. (I'm confident that, as I started a new full-time PAYE job in April 2000, and would also have submitted a self-assessment return for additional freelance done in 2000–2001 that, one way or another, I would have made the full contributions.) Sure enough, I was told over the phone that this was an error, so I asked if it could be rectified. However, the message has merely switched to 'being checked'. This is better than nothing, I suppose, but it's still a concern.

Call the NI helpline last Tues to get an update on my payments, the very kind lady said as I was near to drawing my pension, she would fast track my application. This should have taken up to 72 hours to process, I checked today and nothing has been updated as promised.

I paid a voluntary contribution back in January this year (2023) and have confirmation that it was received plus it was taken from my bank account. However, it still isn't showing towards my missing years. I paid it using my Class 2 contributions reference and was told that this is the reason it wasn't showing as it needed to be transferred over. I have called several times and was told back in June that based on the status at that time mine would likely get looked at and be showing on my records by the end of June. It still isn't. It is virtually impossible to call anyone so please could you give me an address that I can write to get this sorted. Thanks

I would not worry about this one year being short as it is before the 2016 when the new state pension came in. If you buy back any years prior to 2016 it will not enhance your retirement pension because it changed in 2016. This is what I was told by the national insurance enquiry hotline.

Hi Michelle Ventura,

We are sorry that your payment is not showing on your National Insurance (NI) record yet. If you paid it to Self Assessment, it can take longer to get it transferred over to NI. We suggest you contact our National Insurance team to pursue this.

National Insurance: general enquiries

Thank you.

I have been paying my voluntary class 2 contributions through my self assessment portal for many years but now the last two years 2020 onwards are showing up not full. I have just read that if you pay this way they can take longer to show up on your record but they seem to be disappearing. I have just paid this year's voluntary contribution as directed to do so by my return. It is of course not showing up yet but I am now worried. Either I did not have to pay them and i may not get a refund or I will be left short on my pension. Is it wise to call the helpline? as they do seem to be overwhelmed? Lucy

Hi Lucy Elizabeth Jones,
You will need to contact the National Insurance contributions helpline so that we can check your records.
The number to ring is 0300 200 3500. Lines are open from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. 
Thank you.