Voluntary National Insurance Contributions - catch up

Hi, I currently live abroad, and didn’t have three FULL continuous years of living in the UK and wish to catch up my NI contributions if this will enable me to qualify for the state pension. Guidance on social security abroad: NI38 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) states that I can pay alternatively qualify if I “(b) Before going abroad, you paid National Insurance: ….(i) from April 1975 to give 3 qualifying years”. My online record shows: • 2 years of full contributions • 28 years to contribute before 5 April 20xx • 8 years when you did not contribute enough There is one year adjacent to the 2 years where it has a part payment. I wish to qualify for catch up contributions, but am unsure what is meant by “qualifying year” and whether now I am overseas I am still able to make any catch up payments which would allow me catch up with Part 2 contributions. *Can you please define and explain ‘qualifying year’? *Am I eligible, having lived and worked in the UK for a time period spanning 3 tax years (although short of 3 full years)? *If not, am I eligible to make catch up contributions for the remainder of the 3rd year to enable me to qualify? *State pension forecast indicates I can make up the shortfall in my national insurance for the incomplete third year by making a voluntary contribution by 5 of April 2023. Can you confirm that by making up the shortfall, I will qualify to make catch up contributions ultimately qualifying for the state pension? *If I can make up this shortfall, can you please advise how I might do so? I have attempted phone contact but am unable to get through - a number of times I have been disconnected after waiting for over an hour. Thank you

Hi, I have not yet received a reply HMRC - I am unable to get through on the phone - are you able to please respond as the deadline for payment is April 6?

Hi ahmrck,

Unfortunately, without looking at your personal National Insurance records I am unable to confirm if you would be eligible to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions whilst abroad.
The information in the NI38 - Social Security abroad: NI38 confirms that you need to have lived in the UK for a continuous 3-year period at any time before the period for which National Insurance contributions are to be paid, or before going abroad, you paid National Insurance:
(i) from April 1975 to give 3 qualifying years, or
(ii) from April 1975 to give 2 qualifying years and paid 52 National Insurance contributions (of any Class) before 6 April 1975, or
(iii) from April 1975 to give 1 qualifying year and paid 104 National Insurance contributions (of any Class) before 6 April 1975, or
(iv) 156 National Insurance contributions (of any Class) before 6 April 1975, this will be checked when you ask to pay Class 3 National Insurance contributions, and if you’ve lived or worked in an EU country, or in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland or Turkey, your time spent there may help you to meet condition 2(a) or 2(b).
A qualifying year means, a full tax year that you have paid sufficient National Insurance contributions i.e equivalent to 52 weeks.
If you would like HMRC to check if you are eligible to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions, please complete the CF83 application form which can be found on the GOV.UK website, see link above.
Please note, the deadline for paying for tax years from 2006-2007 to 2016-2017 has been extended to 31/07/2023.
Your CF83 will need to be received by HMRC before that date for those years to be considered, if you are eligible.

Thank you.

Thank you for getting back to me and confirming the extended deadline. I will submit the NI38 form.

My wife lived in the UK up to 2001, but she had a temporary National Insurance number up to the time she left. She cannot check her national record as it does not recognise the temporary number. How can she go about checking her record? Thank you

Hi ger o mahony,

Unfortunately this is not something we can give an answer on this platform.

Your wife will need to contact us in writing or by completing the form CA5604.

Get your National Insurance number

We will investigate to whether she was given a full National Insurance (NI) Number in her own right.

There is other processes we can put in place if depending on the reason to why she only had a temporary number and not a full NI number at the time she was in the UK and whether we need to raise a NI number for your wife.

She will not be able to view her record on line until she registers for a full NI number and she will also need the following documentation to register for a personal tax account:

Personal tax account: sign in or set up

Thank you.