Paying class 3 NI Voluntary Contributions when living abroad

Hello I am a dual British Italian citizen. Whilst living in the UK I was paying Class 3 NI voluntary contributions to fill gaps as I only have 27 years which count towards my state pension. My question is if I can still keep on paying the Class 3 contributions and what happens when I reach pensionable age in 2033. Many thanks

I'll leave HMRC to comment on the NIC position and, from a personal perspective, will be interested to learn whether you qualify to pay Class 2, rather than Class 3, not only whether you qualify for Class 3? You might like to look at the NI 38 on GOV UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-security-abroad-ni38 if HMRC allows a link to be posted), which may answer some of your questions. Assuming you are covered by the EU Withdrawal Agreement (which I would surmise you would be given what you write), the rules on the coordination of social security systems in EC 883/2004 legislation should continue to apply to you. This means that you will be entitled to a UK state pension and to an Italian state pension with contributions in each country being taken into consideration by the other. Each country will then pay you a pension. For the UK the only impact of those EU rules is to help you to get past the minimum 10-year requirement (which you appear not to need as you already have 27 years) but for Italy the UK years may play a bigger role. For instance, for me, my UK years helped me get past a 35-year requirement under the German rules even though I worked for less than 10 years in Germany. When the time comes to claim your Italian pension at Italian pension age and/or your UK pension at UK pension age, you make your application to your country of residence (presumably Italy) and they coordinate with the other country. It matters not, if the pension age in your country of residence is older than that in your country to which your claim relates. HMRC cannot comment on the pension rules, so you might want to have a chat with your Italian pension authority about how the EU rules will work with regard to Italy and with the UK International Pensions Centre on +44 191 218 7777 to confirm the UK position.

Hi,

If you have left the UK and you want to continue to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions whilst abroad, you should apply by completing a CF83 application form. The form can be found here:

Social Security abroad: NI38

You should always obtain advice from DWP before deciding to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions.

Thank you.