Katvik Katona

I submitted the required CF83 form, indicating I would like to cover NICs class 3 payments for previous years last summer. I received a reply from HMRC that my application was approved. Great, I made the payment to HRMC in Jan 2023. Then I realised on this site that I needed to call Pension Service in order to 1) get a confirmation of the payment and 2) get the allocation of the funds to the relevant years of my NI records. Now, I live aboard and I tried to call Pension Service three times. Each time I spent about 40min on the phone, but never managed to get through. My question is if I ultimately don't manage to get this call done, what happens? Will the allocation finally be done, without my intervention? Or is it an absolute must to make this call and "instruct" HRMC to make the allocation? Thank you in advance, V.K.

I am just wondering how many years of shortfall in NI contributions one can make. I reside abroad for many years now. I read it somewhere the max is 6 years. On the other hand when I check my Class 3 NICs shortfall in my NI record it shows 8 years shortfall, with the note "you can make up the shortfall", specifying how much I need to pay and by when. So, is this possible to cover shortfalls of more than 6 years back?