Boosting UK Basic State Pension (catching up missing years)

[Valuethinker]

Boosting your UK pension should now be quicker and simpler.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/ ... ting-tool/

The "window" for catching up years in the more distant past is being closed -- it was extended from last spring due to the problem of getting through. You need 35 years to get a full pension (each year is worth approximately £250 pa from your State Pension Age and costs less than £1000 to buy AFAIK).

The old process was very painful, indeed. I spent more than 2 hours on the phone (and got kicked out of the queue a number of times) to do it.

Recall if you retire to USA or EU, your Basic State Pension will be indexed to inflation. So if you plan to retire in UK, EU or USA, this could be well worth doing (I don't know how the equalisation works with US Social Security). (EDIT: Of course under the "triple lock" BSP has been indexed to the *higher* of: 1. inflation 2. 2.5% 3. real wage growth for the last 10 years or so).

This is not the case if you retire to Canada (or Australia?). No Treaty in place, and not likely to be one. Your pension is frozen (but if you ever return to the UK for a period of time, it can be restarted at the inflation adjusted level, but only for the time you are resident in the UK).

[fogalog]

Boosting your UK pension should now be quicker and simpler.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/ ... ting-tool/

The "window" for catching up years in the more distant past is being closed -- it was extended from last spring due to the problem of getting through. You need 35 years to get a full pension (each year is worth approximately £250 pa from your State Pension Age and costs less than £1000 to buy AFAIK).

The old process was very painful, indeed. I spent more than 2 hours on the phone (and got kicked out of the queue a number of times) to do it.

Recall if you retire to USA or EU, your Basic State Pension will be indexed to inflation. So if you plan to retire in UK, EU or USA, this could be well worth doing (I don't know how the equalisation works with US Social Security). (EDIT: Of course under the "triple lock" BSP has been indexed to the *higher* of: 1. inflation 2. 2.5% 3. real wage growth for the last 10 years or so).

This is not the case if you retire to Canada (or Australia?). No Treaty in place, and not likely to be one. Your pension is frozen (but if you ever return to the UK for a period of time, it can be restarted at the inflation adjusted level, but only for the time you are resident in the UK).

Thank you for sharing. I gave up on trying to do this last year because I couldn't seem to get through on the phone. We are UK citizens resident (greencard) in the US but will likely retire in the UK or somewhere in the EU within the next 5 years. I have been contributing to US Social Security for 22 years but my wife has not worked for the last 20 years so I was hoping to boost her UK BSP using this method, on the basis that it shouldn't matter which country we build the credit in. At roughly GBP800 per year, it seems like a great investment.

Since I will qualify for US SS, I am assuming no point in doing this for myself as the US SS and UK BSP have an "equalization" agreement - is that correct?

Thanks.

[TedSwippet]

Since I will qualify for US SS, I am assuming no point in doing this for myself as the US SS and UK BSP have an "equalization" agreement - is that correct?

Maybe not. From the SSA:

Totalization Agreement with United Kingdom | International Programs | SSA

If you have social security credits in both the United States and the United Kingdom, you may be eligible for benefits from one or both countries. If you meet all the basic requirements under one country’s system, you will get a regular benefit from that country. If you do not meet the basic requirements, the Agreement may help you qualify for a benefit as explained below.

That is, the equalization agreement is apparently there to save you where you paid into one or the other country's SS, but not enough to meet the basic requirement for that country's pension. In which case, the payments get credited somehow to the other country. Where you do have enough to qualify for both though, you get to claim both.

One catch, of course, is that if you qualify for a UK state pension, the US can (and likely will) row back to a degree on your US one with something it terms the Windfall Elimination Provision. Details are viciously complicated, so much so that realistically you probably have little a hope of calculating the numbers for yourself. You might get some idea though from the SSA's online calculator. If you are lucky.

Another catch is that if it turns out for any reason (miscalculation, change of rules, confusion over payments) that additional voluntary UK NI payments would in fact not have any effect or boost on your final UK state pension, it is highly unlikely that the UK govt will tell you and/or refund your money, rather than simply keep it. So you want to be very certain that putting cash voluntarily into the UK NI will get you something useful back.

Disclaimer. Unravelling this ball of wool is fiddly and uncertain, so that I have only a sketchy understanding of my own situation in all of this. Anything I might say regarding anyone else's -- or for that matter, my own! -- may be entirely wrong.

[ikowik]

I do not have the knowledge to help you with your main questions, but want to add that (unlike what TedSwippet says) there is nothing "vicious" in calculating the Windfall Elimination Protection (WEP) for any Social security benefits you would qualify for in the US. I have resided in the U.K, have a U.K pension and have Social Security benefits in the US- so personal experience.
I do not share his bitterness.
I was able to use an online calculator on the SSA website- the one specifically for people with possible WEP reductions. Just put in the numbers asked for, and see if you are subject to WEP. The difficulty is in estimating future income until you retire and claim SSA benefits, but that is not "vicious", just the difficulties in knowing the future.
If you wish to dig further, the SSA site has a more accurate one- the "Detailed Calculator". Has to be downloaded, works reliably only on Windows OS, and is reminiscent of DOS, but is more flexible.

[TedSwippet]

I was able to use an online calculator on the SSA website- the one specifically for people with possible WEP reductions. Just put in the numbers asked for, and see if you are subject to WEP. The difficulty is in estimating future income until you retire and claim SSA benefits, but that is not "vicious", just the difficulties in knowing the future.

Fair. I was referring to its apparent complexity which led to my inability to understand exactly how the underlying WEP numbers arise, not the difficulty of using the SSA's toolset. In desperation, I dissected the JavaScript in their online tool -- it is plain text and not (intentionally!) obfuscated -- but couldn't make any sense of it. Maybe the calculations are actually simple, and I missed something. Knowing how the WEP operates in detail would help me plan for or around it, but I couldn't reach that level of knowledge with it.

If you wish to dig further, the SSA site has a more accurate one- the "Detailed Calculator". Has to be downloaded, works reliably only on Windows OS, and is reminiscent of DOS, but is more flexible.

Yes. I don't possess a computer that runs Windows, so no idea on that. Perhaps it is more illuminating than the online one.

[Valuethinker]

Boosting your UK pension should now be quicker and simpler.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/ ... ting-tool/

The "window" for catching up years in the more distant past is being closed -- it was extended from last spring due to the problem of getting through. You need 35 years to get a full pension (each year is worth approximately £250 pa from your State Pension Age and costs less than £1000 to buy AFAIK).

The old process was very painful, indeed. I spent more than 2 hours on the phone (and got kicked out of the queue a number of times) to do it.

Recall if you retire to USA or EU, your Basic State Pension will be indexed to inflation. So if you plan to retire in UK, EU or USA, this could be well worth doing (I don't know how the equalisation works with US Social Security). (EDIT: Of course under the "triple lock" BSP has been indexed to the *higher* of: 1. inflation 2. 2.5% 3. real wage growth for the last 10 years or so).

This is not the case if you retire to Canada (or Australia?). No Treaty in place, and not likely to be one. Your pension is frozen (but if you ever return to the UK for a period of time, it can be restarted at the inflation adjusted level, but only for the time you are resident in the UK).

Thank you for sharing. I gave up on trying to do this last year because I couldn't seem to get through on the phone. We are UK citizens resident (greencard) in the US but will likely retire in the UK or somewhere in the EU within the next 5 years. I have been contributing to US Social Security for 22 years but my wife has not worked for the last 20 years so I was hoping to boost her UK BSP using this method, on the basis that it shouldn't matter which country we build the credit in. At roughly GBP800 per year, it seems like a great investment.

Since I will qualify for US SS, I am assuming no point in doing this for myself as the US SS and UK BSP have an "equalization" agreement - is that correct?

Thanks.

You have a window.

Yes it took me a couple of hours on the phone - got disconnected several times. Try calling at 8 am?

(HMRC is stopping answering phonecalls, or was until there was a storm in Parliament about it. However I don't think that applies to National Insurance).

It would be worth doing for your spouse. Inflation indexed income (from age 65, 66 or 67) for the rest of their life.

Your window closes next year. It's been extended once and I don't imagine they will do so, again. It might also be possible to set up automatically buying years from now? My father did that from outside the UK for over 30 years -- my mother is in her 90s and we still have to get a lawyer to sign that she is still alive and able to receive widow's pension (she never lived in the UK).

[Valuethinker]

I was able to use an online calculator on the SSA website- the one specifically for people with possible WEP reductions. Just put in the numbers asked for, and see if you are subject to WEP. The difficulty is in estimating future income until you retire and claim SSA benefits, but that is not "vicious", just the difficulties in knowing the future.

Fair. I was referring to its apparent complexity which led to my inability to understand exactly how the underlying WEP numbers arise, not the difficulty of using the SSA's toolset. In desperation, I dissected the JavaScript in their online tool -- it is plain tax and not (intentionally!) obfuscated -- but couldn't make any sense of it. Maybe the calculations are actually simple, and I missed something. Knowing how the WEP operates in detail would help me plan for or around it, but I couldn't reach that level of knowledge with it.

If you wish to dig further, the SSA site has a more accurate one- the "Detailed Calculator". Has to be downloaded, works reliably only on Windows OS, and is reminiscent of DOS, but is more flexible.

Yes. I don't possess a computer that runs Windows, so no idea on that. Perhaps it is more illuminating than the online one.

I don't know if you ran a Windows emulator on a Mac whether that would suffice?

If not, I am sure you could get access to a Windows machine if you needed it?

[fogalog]

Boosting your UK pension should now be quicker and simpler.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/ ... ting-tool/

The "window" for catching up years in the more distant past is being closed -- it was extended from last spring due to the problem of getting through. You need 35 years to get a full pension (each year is worth approximately £250 pa from your State Pension Age and costs less than £1000 to buy AFAIK).

The old process was very painful, indeed. I spent more than 2 hours on the phone (and got kicked out of the queue a number of times) to do it.

Recall if you retire to USA or EU, your Basic State Pension will be indexed to inflation. So if you plan to retire in UK, EU or USA, this could be well worth doing (I don't know how the equalisation works with US Social Security). (EDIT: Of course under the "triple lock" BSP has been indexed to the *higher* of: 1. inflation 2. 2.5% 3. real wage growth for the last 10 years or so).

This is not the case if you retire to Canada (or Australia?). No Treaty in place, and not likely to be one. Your pension is frozen (but if you ever return to the UK for a period of time, it can be restarted at the inflation adjusted level, but only for the time you are resident in the UK).

Thank you for sharing. I gave up on trying to do this last year because I couldn't seem to get through on the phone. We are UK citizens resident (greencard) in the US but will likely retire in the UK or somewhere in the EU within the next 5 years. I have been contributing to US Social Security for 22 years but my wife has not worked for the last 20 years so I was hoping to boost her UK BSP using this method, on the basis that it shouldn't matter which country we build the credit in. At roughly GBP800 per year, it seems like a great investment.

Since I will qualify for US SS, I am assuming no point in doing this for myself as the US SS and UK BSP have an "equalization" agreement - is that correct?

Thanks.

You have a window.

Yes it took me a couple of hours on the phone - got disconnected several times. Try calling at 8 am?

(HMRC is stopping answering phonecalls, or was until there was a storm in Parliament about it. However I don't think that applies to National Insurance).

It would be worth doing for your spouse. Inflation indexed income (from age 65, 66 or 67) for the rest of their life.

Your window closes next year. It's been extended once and I don't imagine they will do so, again. It might also be possible to set up automatically buying years from now? My father did that from outside the UK for over 30 years -- my mother is in her 90s and we still have to get a lawyer to sign that she is still alive and able to receive widow's pension (she never lived in the UK).

Thanks. We're in California so maybe I will wait until we're in the UK in the summer to try early in the morning. I know there is an extra hoop to jump through / form to fill out because we don't currently live there so trying to figure out if we can at least get that part done without waiting on the phone forever.

[TheDogFather]

Yes, you can buy some missing years that will increase UK pension amounts by either £270GBP or £302GBP per year (dependent on the years purchased).

Yes, WEP will apply and will result in some reduction of Social Security if you don’t have 30 qualifying years, and the WEP amount needs to be calculated to determine if purchasing UK years makes sense.

A further wrinkle in the calculations is that, at least for me, there are Class 2 and Class 3 rates for purchasing years and Class 3 is about five times more expensive.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... broad-ni38

[Stork]

I can inform you that HMRC also answers snail-mail, I had doubts about my position and wrote (by registered mail) last October; the answer came earlier this week.

I am eligible to make class 3 contributions but do not yet know for how many years. As I read the rules https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/w ... dex_en.htm there should be no reduction in other pensions if the UK one increases; I have rights from Denmark and Portugal too.

[Valuethinker]

Yes, you can buy some missing years that will increase UK pension amounts by either £270GBP or £302GBP per year (dependent on the years purchased).

Yes, WEP will apply and will result in some reduction of Social Security if you don’t have 30 qualifying years, and the WEP amount needs to be calculated to determine if purchasing UK years makes sense.

A further wrinkle in the calculations is that, at least for me, there are Class 2 and Class 3 rates for purchasing years and Class 3 is about five times more expensive.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... broad-ni38

Just to clarify, the 30 years is a US Social Security thing?

The full Basic State Pension in the UK is now based upon 35 years.

[TheDogFather]

Just to clarify, the 30 years is a US Social Security thing?

The full Basic State Pension in the UK is now based upon 35 years.

Yes, to eliminate WEP lowering US Social Security payments requires 30 years of “substantial earnings” when paying US SS.

https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf

[TheDogFather]

Doing more research on this topic I saw an unverified claim that the WEP penalty is not applied to UK State Pension benefits that result from voluntary National Insurance Contributions.

This makes logical sense, but I do not know how you would demonstrate to the SSA the portion of your UK State Pension that results from voluntary contributions?

[SunRainSnow]

Doing more research on this topic I saw an unverified claim that the WEP penalty is not applied to UK State Pension benefits that result from voluntary National Insurance Contributions.

This makes logical sense, but I do not know how you would demonstrate to the SSA the portion of your UK State Pension that results from voluntary contributions?

UK OAP statement used by SSA at time of application will break out voluntary and non voluntary contributions.

Disclaimer - I have no personal experience of this but I’ve heard it from numerous sources.

[jg12345]

Doing more research on this topic I saw an unverified claim that the WEP penalty is not applied to UK State Pension benefits that result from voluntary National Insurance Contributions.

This makes logical sense, but I do not know how you would demonstrate to the SSA the portion of your UK State Pension that results from voluntary contributions?

even in the UK government portal when you go under 'check your national insurance years' it (should) show the weeks of contributions from self employment, paid employment, voluntary (source: seen with my own eyes!)

[Wannaretireearly]

I’m guessing for someone with one to five years of earnings in the UK followed by 20+ years in the US, it’s not going to be worth it to ‘catch up’?

[TheDogFather]

I’m guessing for someone with one to five years of earnings in the UK followed by 20+ years in the US, it’s not going to be worth it to ‘catch up’?

It would be worth contacting them to find out. Provided you have the minimum number of years (I think it’s three) you can ‘buy years’ at a cost of approx 900GBP each and each year increases pension by 300GBP per year. So allowing for buying years with after tax money and then being taxed on the pension payment the payback would be about five years dependent on your tax rates.

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-i ... 8026e90426

[Wannaretireearly]

I’m guessing for someone with one to five years of earnings in the UK followed by 20+ years in the US, it’s not going to be worth it to ‘catch up’?

It would be worth contacting them to find out. Provided you have the minimum number of years (I think it’s three) you can ‘buy years’ at a cost of approx 900GBP each and each year increases pension by 300GBP per year. So allowing for buying years with after tax money and then being taxed on the pension payment the payback would be about five years dependent on your tax rates.

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-i ... 8026e90426

Thanks!

[occambogle]

Just pointing out that next week the US Senate will vote on ending the WEP:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-sec ... nate-vote/
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-con ... se-bill/82

[Valuethinker]

Poster occambogle is following this process through

viewtopic.php?p=8172922#p8172922

Paying additional missed National Insurance years

[fogalog]

Poster occambogle is following this process through

viewtopic.php?p=8172922#p8172922

Paying additional missed National Insurance years

[I just posted this but in the "wrong" thread so posting here].

I am going through form CF83 right now and have a question that hopefully someone here can answer.

I left the UK in 1998 but of course I am only eligible to pay for NI gaps back to 2006. If I fill out the form stating 1998 as my departure date, I have to fill out employment details from that date... which seems irrelevant (and at least one of the employers no longer exists). Should I use 2006 as my departure date?

Thanks in advance...

[Valuethinker]

Poster occambogle is following this process through

viewtopic.php?p=8172922#p8172922

Paying additional missed National Insurance years

[I just posted this but in the "wrong" thread so posting here].

I am going through form CF83 right now and have a question that hopefully someone here can answer.

I left the UK in 1998 but of course I am only eligible to pay for NI gaps back to 2006. If I fill out the form stating 1998 as my departure date, I have to fill out employment details from that date... which seems irrelevant (and at least one of the employers no longer exists). Should I use 2006 as my departure date?

Thanks in advance...

So. I have no idea.

It is what you think you can get away with and still get it done. So the reason they are asking is so they can be sure it is you, and you have correctly reported your NI record (ie that it matches with theirs).

That would lead me to putting the last UK employer details, ie 1998 even though you can only revert to 2006. So that they can match you. Also it means following their instructions *to the letter*. It may be the case that if your last employer matches, they are not too worried about the rest.

The thing with civil servants is they have to do things "by the book". If there's anything that doesn't match, they don't have latitude to bend the rules. OK sometimes rules are bent (or errors are made) but they are trained to be impartial and to follow the rules.

[fogalog]

[I just posted this but in the "wrong" thread so posting here].

I am going through form CF83 right now and have a question that hopefully someone here can answer.

I left the UK in 1998 but of course I am only eligible to pay for NI gaps back to 2006. If I fill out the form stating 1998 as my departure date, I have to fill out employment details from that date... which seems irrelevant (and at least one of the employers no longer exists). Should I use 2006 as my departure date?

Thanks in advance...

So. I have no idea.

It is what you think you can get away with and still get it done. So the reason they are asking is so they can be sure it is you, and you have correctly reported your NI record (ie that it matches with theirs).

That would lead me to putting the last UK employer details, ie 1998 even though you can only revert to 2006. So that they can match you. Also it means following their instructions *to the letter*. It may be the case that if your last employer matches, they are not too worried about the rest.

The thing with civil servants is they have to do things "by the book". If there's anything that doesn't match, they don't have latitude to bend the rules. OK sometimes rules are bent (or errors are made) but they are trained to be impartial and to follow the rules.

Thank you. My situation is a little complicated - I was working for a foreign-based company and living in the UK when I left. The foreign company did not have a UK entity so I was filling out UK self employed tax forms for the year before I left.

As I went through the form, I clicked on all the help available and found this in the employment section:

*

...so I decided to leave my exit date as 1998, and filled out the countries from 1998 to present, but only filled in employers from 2006.

In case the file cant be loaded - never embedded an image here before - here's what it says:

• Next give us details for each employment you have had while abroad
  
  Add details for each employment abroad. This is for the period abroad you are applying for.
  
  Add each employment one at a time, starting with the most recent.
  
  If you worked for an employer in more than one country
  Add employment details for each country separately.
  
  If you have specific past gaps in your National Insurance record you want to fill
  You can just provide details for your employment abroad during these gaps.
  
  However, we recommend giving details for the full period abroad that the gap or gaps fall within. This can help us to give you more information when we write back to you with details of past gaps you are eligible to pay. We will include costs, rates, and payment time limits for each gap.

I assume I am good to just enter employers from April 2006 in this case...?

[Valuethinker]

So. I have no idea.

It is what you think you can get away with and still get it done. So the reason they are asking is so they can be sure it is you, and you have correctly reported your NI record (ie that it matches with theirs).

That would lead me to putting the last UK employer details, ie 1998 even though you can only revert to 2006. So that they can match you. Also it means following their instructions *to the letter*. It may be the case that if your last employer matches, they are not too worried about the rest.

The thing with civil servants is they have to do things "by the book". If there's anything that doesn't match, they don't have latitude to bend the rules. OK sometimes rules are bent (or errors are made) but they are trained to be impartial and to follow the rules.

Thank you. My situation is a little complicated - I was working for a foreign-based company and living in the UK when I left. The foreign company did not have a UK entity so I was filling out UK self employed tax forms for the year before I left.

As I went through the form, I clicked on all the help available and found this in the employment section:

*

...so I decided to leave my exit date as 1998, and filled out the countries from 1998 to present, but only filled in employers from 2006.

In case the file cant be loaded - never embedded an image here before - here's what it says:

• Next give us details for each employment you have had while abroad
  
  Add details for each employment abroad. This is for the period abroad you are applying for.
  
  Add each employment one at a time, starting with the most recent.
  
  If you worked for an employer in more than one country
  Add employment details for each country separately.
  
  If you have specific past gaps in your National Insurance record you want to fill
  You can just provide details for your employment abroad during these gaps.
  
  However, we recommend giving details for the full period abroad that the gap or gaps fall within. This can help us to give you more information when we write back to you with details of past gaps you are eligible to pay. We will include costs, rates, and payment time limits for each gap.

I assume I am good to just enter employers from April 2006 in this case...?

Image doesn't come through on my machine.

I do not know what to do in your case, but you can try entering employers from April 2006 and see if they query it?

[fogalog]

Thank you. My situation is a little complicated - I was working for a foreign-based company and living in the UK when I left. The foreign company did not have a UK entity so I was filling out UK self employed tax forms for the year before I left.

As I went through the form, I clicked on all the help available and found this in the employment section:

*

...so I decided to leave my exit date as 1998, and filled out the countries from 1998 to present, but only filled in employers from 2006.

In case the file cant be loaded - never embedded an image here before - here's what it says:

• Next give us details for each employment you have had while abroad
  
  Add details for each employment abroad. This is for the period abroad you are applying for.
  
  Add each employment one at a time, starting with the most recent.
  
  If you worked for an employer in more than one country
  Add employment details for each country separately.
  
  If you have specific past gaps in your National Insurance record you want to fill
  You can just provide details for your employment abroad during these gaps.
  
  However, we recommend giving details for the full period abroad that the gap or gaps fall within. This can help us to give you more information when we write back to you with details of past gaps you are eligible to pay. We will include costs, rates, and payment time limits for each gap.

I assume I am good to just enter employers from April 2006 in this case...?

Image doesn't come through on my machine.

I do not know what to do in your case, but you can try entering employers from April 2006 and see if they query it?

Yes, I just did exactly that. I also added a note explaining that this is what I did.

I put the image on google drive - I don't know why it does not show but here is the URL:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j0aWaR ... 0ko-E/view

[occambogle]

Sorry I don’t have my laptop with me so can’t type much. The other relevant thing here is (may or may not be in your case)…. That by asking these questions they are determining whether you owe Class 2 or Class 3 NICs. Class 2 are much cheaper for a similar benefit, but are dependent on you being employed in the UK just before leaving and then immediately working abroad, rather than having a large gap (I’m paraphrasing/summarizing here).

Edit: my summary wasn’t great, sorry, see the exact criteria for Class 2 eligibility here:

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-i ... tributions

https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/w ... nce-is-for

[fogalog]

Sorry I don’t have my laptop with me so can’t type much. The other relevant thing here is (may or may not be in your case)…. That by asking these questions they are determining whether you owe Class 2 or Class 3 NICs. Class 2 are much cheaper for a similar benefit, but are dependent on you being employed in the UK just before leaving and then immediately working abroad, rather than having a large gap (I’m paraphrasing/summarizing here).

Edit: my summary wasn’t great, sorry, see the exact criteria for Class 2 eligibility here:

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-i ... tributions

https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/w ... nce-is-for

Ah. Thank you. I wish I had seen your post before I hit submit. I was employed by a foreign company but living in the UK. Since my employer did not have a UK presence, and I was living in the UK, for HMRC purposes, I was self employed. Then I left and went to work for that same company abroad. The challenge for me is that the company I left the UK to work for (in 1998) no longer exists.

I just checked on the HMRC website as to when I can expect a response and they are suggesting within a month. I am hoping that by submitting the form I have at least complied with the deadline and can correct if needed later.

[occambogle]

I asked a question on the HMRC community forum and an HMRC Admin replied, so just posting some of the answers here in case it helps anyone thinking about this procedure. Note these answers pertain specifically to people living abroad:

To be advised about paying voluntary National Insurance contributions whilst overseas, the first thing to do is to read our leaflet NI38 ‘Social Security Abroad’. If, after reading the NI38, you wish to pay voluntary contributions then complete and return the CF83 application form.
Both the NI38 and CF83 can be found via: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... broad-ni38

Providing that we receive your CF83 application form before the 5 April 2025 deadline, then you will not be penalised for any delays before we reply to you. You will be given extra time to make any payments that you wish to if we reply close to the April date.

Advice will be in our reply to your CF83 application form to first contact Future Pension Centre before paying any voluntary contributions. This is because some shortfalls of voluntary contributions may not improve your pension entitlement – they will be able to advise which tax years it would be best for you to pay.

We are only able to contact you by post – we are not able to contact you electronically. If you would like to use a correspondence address then this would be fine.