hi all just a quick one. ive got a temp P/T (hopefully long term temp) job at last. i earn under the weekly wage to pay NI contributions.
question is does the employer pay my NI cont??
as im not paying it i dont want it not counting towards my pension.
also ive tried to find a site that tells me if ive paid in for long enough for my OAP pension, ive worked out im roughly on the 30 year paying in limit, but might be a month or 3 short.



thanks all in advance for your knowledgeable replies.

Speak to HMRC contributions section, they'll make something up to get you off the phone

You can actually check online, my wife did when she was out of work and signing on to keep her pension contributions going, the figure from memory is 30 years and when she had a review at the Job Centre they did their best to get her to sign off stating that she didn't need the JSA because it wasn't contributing to her pension entitlement any more - as if that was the only reason she was bothering them.

cheers lads, ive looked for the specific site to check but cant find it on google. any links greatly received LOL.

[urlhttp://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/state-pensions/state-pension-forecast[/url

Very very true.

If you're not earning over the lower earnings limit (£102 for 2011-12) and you don't get an NI credit for other reasons (e.g. as a carer or in receipt of JSA/IB) then a year won't count as one of the 30 you need for a full state pension. The lower earnings limit isn't the same as the figure you start paying NIC at (the primary threshold, currently £139 per week), so you can still have a qualifying year without actually paying any NIC.

You may already have the 30 years you need - as others have suggested, get a pension forecast to check.

If you have gaps in your NI record, HMRC will contact you with a deficiency notice. You can "buy" additional years by paying Class 3 NIC for non-qualifying years (I think it costs around £650 to make a non-qualifying year into a qualifying one).

[url=http://www.direct.gov.uk/spptv4_en.dsbState Pension profiler[/url

I have returned to Uni for the next 3 yrs and was unsure how it would effect my NI contributions regarding my state pension. I rang them and they sent me a statement which you can request yearly apparently. I was glad I did this as it told me I had 29yrs worth of NI contribution in already (this surprised me as I thought I only had about 23/4 but apparently you get 3 yrs automatically from 16,17 & 18 yrs old)so I do not have to worry about my contributions for the next 3 yrs.

thats the one. cheers mate. im fully paid up so no probs.
can i refuse to pay NI now as ive paid my share for my pension??

Is NI contributions not voluntary?

I've not paid for 6 years