The Lemon Fool

I checked my state pension forecast online at gov.uk and looked at my NI contribution record. It all seemed up to date, except that the year 2015-16 was described as "not full". I have posted a letter to HMRC giving them the full details of my earnings, tax paid and NI contributions that year which, in my view, should establish that the year is indeed "full" for NI purposes. But is there an easier way? The standard HMRC phone helpline offers a series of long-winded, limited and unhelpful "options" which, after 10 minutes, have still got me on hold and no closer to speaking to a knowledgeable person. Can anyone advise on a more productive approach?

Avantegarde wrote:I checked my state pension forecast online at gov.uk and looked at my NI contribution record. It all seemed up to date, except that the year 2015-16 was described as "not full". I have posted a letter to HMRC giving them the full details of my earnings, tax paid and NI contributions that year which, in my view, should establish that the year is indeed "full" for NI purposes. But is there an easier way? The standard HMRC phone helpline offers a series of long-winded, limited and unhelpful "options" which, after 10 minutes, have still got me on hold and no closer to speaking to a knowledgeable person. Can anyone advise on a more productive approach?

Persevere with the phone call. It will get answered. We have made a couple of such phone queries recently - c 10-15 minute waits, - (and achieved satisfaction!).

I simply posted a photocopy of the relevant P60 and a covering letter - worded as below (personal stuff removed for obvious reasons):

Error in National Insurance Record for FULL NAME+SURNAME, NI number, DoB <my date of birth>

Dear Sir/Madam

The "Check your State pension website states that YYYY-YY as "Year is not full", and that I did not make any NI contributions in that year. This is incorrect as I have been employed continuously by EMPLOYER since November YYYY-1.

I enclose a copy of my P60 for YYYY-YY as evidence that I paid employee contributions of £NNNN.NN.

Please amend my NI record, and provide me confirmation when this has been done

If you require any further information, please feel free to contact me by email (blah@blah) or by phone (<number>)

This got sent to "Individuals Caseworker, National Insurance and Employers Office, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AN", got me a letter within two weeks confirming that the error had been corrected - no clarifications requested, they just did it.

This was back in 2016 (the error occurred for 2005/06) - your mileage may vary in the current "blame any poor service the corona" environment.

If I were to do that now, I would simply sit back and wait for them to get around to it. If I hadn't heard anything within 8 weeks, then I would chase it.

This is all based on my personal situation - got a few years to go before I'll be claiming a state pension.

PochiSoldi

Thanks for this advice. I shall report how I get on.

I have today sent HMRC a third follow-up letter since my original letter back in September. So that is three pieces of correspondence so far which they have seemingly just ignored. Poor, very poor.

I imagine HMRC staff are all working from home, so written correspondence is still piling up in sacks in a near empty office somewhere!

Update: After my 4th letter, sent in January, I finally received an acknowledgement of that and the previous three letters, stating that HMRC would look into the matter.

Avantegarde wrote:Update: After my 4th letter, sent in January, I finally received an acknowledgement of that and the previous three letters, stating that HMRC would look into the matter.

The current HMRC correspondence delay is apparently massive, I think I recall reading somewhere it was reported as 7-9 months.

In March 2020 I has to write to them to chase a s455 tax repayment, lodged in December 2019, I finally got the funds sorted and credited to our tax account in 2021.

If something is part of their automated services and straightforward things tend to be fine, I got a letter yesterday that my 2020/2021 tax repayment (circa £50) had been credited to my bank and I only submitted my return late January, but anything outwith the norm takes an age.

Final update: I have, eight months after first raising the query, received a letter from HMRC stating that they have accepted my evidence and that the year in question was indeed "full" for NI purposes, so I now have an extra year of NI contributions towards my eventual state pension. Two things: 1) eight bloody months! 2) my government pension forecast tells me that I will receive - after 20% tax - nearly £650 in my bank account every month. On top of my employer's pension. Blimey.

In retrospect, we should really all have been advised to keep all our P60s.

The only advice on them at the time was to keep them for income tax returns. Like most people I hardly ever filled in a tax return during my working life (three I think) so always used to throw mine away. As I imagine most did.