The Lemon Fool

Hello
If anyone has any advice, much appreciated.
I became non UK tax resident a couple of years ago, having employment in Malta, but wish to make contributions for NI in UK in order to get full state pension.
I know how to get state pension forecast and see missing years.
My question is, given I pay NI equivalent here in Malta, social security contributions, from my limited understanding there is a way to get them transferred back to UK.
I think I need to post a CF83 APPLICATION TO PAY FROM ABROAD form and then chose to pay class 3 NI from Malta but the guidance is confusing and NI helpline impossible to get an answer.
If anyone has any clue then please advise.
Thanks!

jdepp wrote:I know how to get state pension forecast and see missing years.

The forecast for your SP comes from the Department for Work and Pensions. However what you also need is a statement from HMRC showing your history of paying NICs and, crucially, which back years you can buy in arrears, and what each year will cost. It works very smoothly, although it takes the DWP a while to update your SP forecast. It is a good deal - I bought 9 back years and the payback period was only about 3 years.

jdepp wrote:My question is, given I pay NI equivalent here in Malta, social security contributions, from my limited understanding there is a way to get them transferred back to UK.

That I know nothing about, sorry.

jdepp wrote:I think I need to post a CF83 APPLICATION TO PAY FROM ABROAD form and then chose to pay class 3 NI from Malta but the guidance is confusing and NI helpline impossible to get an answer.

I fail to see why it would matter where you are. I was in the UK when I made up the missing payments but I recall nothing about the process that was location-dependent. As long as you can send them a cheque in sterling for the right amount, why would they know or care? AFAIK you can receive a British SP anywhere.

Loot, yes I agree the back years you can pay in arrear is a great deal.
I could do this for the last 2 years, ball park figure it costs about £900 pa or a bit less.
But given I am also paying social security contributions in the EU, I thought there was a way to get these repatriated to UK, hence saving me paying the £900 for each year.

I applied to make voluntary National Insurance contributions after leaving the UK to live in Switzerland. I did this by submitting the paper form CF83, but a quick look at the government website suggests you can now do this online. If you worked in the UK before moving to work in Malta, you might well be entitled to make Class 2 contributions, which are far cheaper (more like £180pa) and an absolute bargain. The payment can be made online.

As for getting social contributions repatriated to the UK... I believe this is a misunderstanding. In order to get any UK pension at all, you normally need to have made 10 years of National Insurance contributions; any less than that and your contributions are wasted. However, any years of social security contributions in an EU country (or Switzerland) will be taken into consideration when getting you over the 10 year line. They won't increase the amount of your UK pension, but they will enable you to qualify for the pension in the first place. You will later be able to draw a UK pension as well as whatever your contributions in Malta buy you.

It is worth talking to the helpline - not the NIC one but the future pension centre which I think is 0800 731 0175 - because I think they can tell you whether it is worth contributing for missed years. I had quite a few missed years but it did not make sense for me to make them all good only some of them.

Thank you for replies.
Rodentsoft, I am looking at CF83, I guess this is a requirement to fill in given I am no longer UK resident.
I rarely took salary from my UK company, was more efficient to extract through dividends so when I look back on state pension forecast almost all of last 20 years were voluntary contributions which I assume I cannot just continue to pay without completing CF83?
Thanks for clarifying my misunderstanding of overseas SS contributions being repatriated.

jdepp wrote:Thank you for replies.
Rodentsoft, I am looking at CF83, I guess this is a requirement to fill in given I am no longer UK resident.
I rarely took salary from my UK company, was more efficient to extract through dividends so when I look back on state pension forecast almost all of last 20 years were voluntary contributions which I assume I cannot just continue to pay without completing CF83?

If you're going to try for class 2 voluntary NICs then, yes, you'll need to file the CF83.

OTOH if you're going to make class 3 NICs I doubt it's strictly necessary. I've made quite a few class 3 contributions over the years, both while living abroad and from within the UK, and I always just sent them a cheque with a brief cover letter. Also put your name and NI number on the back of the cheque, along with For Class 3 NICs for 2021/22 and 2022/23 or similar.

mc2fool wrote:

jdepp wrote:Thank you for replies.

Rodentsoft, I am looking at CF83, I guess this is a requirement to fill in given I am no longer UK resident.

I rarely took salary from my UK company, was more efficient to extract through dividends so when I look back on state pension forecast almost all of last 20 years were voluntary contributions which I assume I cannot just continue to pay without completing CF83?

If you're going to try for class 2 voluntary NICs then, yes, you'll need to file the CF83.

OTOH if you're going to make class 3 NICs I doubt it's strictly necessary. I've made quite a few class 3 contributions over the years, both while living abroad and from within the UK, and I always just sent them a cheque with a brief cover letter. Also put your name and NI number on the back of the cheque, along with For Class 3 NICs for 2021/22 and 2022/23 or similar.

Yes, that was the point I made earlier. I fail to see why it matters where you happen to be living when you buy back years. As long as you fill out the (normal) application form correctly and include a cheque for the right amount, why would the authorities care where you were at the time? And other than the postmark on the envelope, they would have no way of knowing anyway.

They took a full year to process my request and accept my right to make voluntary Class 2 NICs. If you're in a hurry, you can certainly send them Class 3 contributions without filling the form; just be sure to quote your NI number. The difference between Class 2 and Class 3 contributions is, in my humble opinion, large enough that it's worth the wait.