If you have been legally working in France youcan use Class 2 Contributions to top up your UK pension.
The cost far less than stumping up Class 3 Contributions.
However, there is a “Catch 22”.
The Department of Work and Pensions will only deal with your request when you are within 6 months of your official retirement date (many female pensioners have already had their reiterment date put back by several years)
On the otherhand Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMCEC will charge you an increased amount if you don’t pay you Class 2 contributions as early as possible.
According to the HMRC this matter is with their “lawyers”. The HMRC adcice s to pay the higher amount and to ask at the end of the tax year whether the payment you made is correct.
I have just gone through the process of topping up my pension.
I have been resident in France for nearly 5 years and am inactif.
I found the process exceedingly easy. I contacted the Pension people and got a statement saying what my maximum pension entitlement was and what I had to pay to achieve that.
I paid this under a class 3 payment.
The payback period was just 3.7 years, so if I live beyond the ripe old age of 70 I will be quids in.
I have been living and working in France for over 10 years.
Several years ago when state pension changed from 30 yrs to 35 paid in, I decided to top up via Class 2 contributions. Usually I do this a few years at a time as an application has to be made on each occasion. Very straightforward.
Never had any problems and I made my most recent payment last year.
It’s just another of those things (in UK) to keep up to date on and hopefully, will benefit me in the future.
Hey! Fellow long-suffering SF-ers! Sit up and take notice! @anon65742194 has posted sans his usual Sauvegardez la Planète ! tag attached! Glory, glory Halleluja!
May be it is worth persisting, the constant drip, drip, drip of water on a stone etc etc.
How charming of you to acknowledge that people’s posts are sometimes worth reading and acting on.
Perhaps we can all work to save the planet?
Grahame Pigney
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The process was very easy except that the DWP wouldn’t respond until my wife was less than 6 months from her pension date (some 6 years after her reaching 60) and the HMRC insisted on applying a “penalty” for her “late” payment because the DWP wouldn’t provide the information.
Grahame Pigney
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Of course it is something to keep up to date with.
But when the HMRC penalises you because the DWP won’t deal with your enquiry because you are more than 6 months away from your revised retirement date that is both unreasonable and unjust.
Grahame Pigney
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Thanks for acknowledging the importance of the information I passed on.
Grahame Pigney
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Grahame and his family have to be one of the most unluckiest groups of people on planet Earth, not only has the French government singled them out for special treatment but now it seems HMRC has joined in.
You have to wonder if it’s worth getting up in the morning for the Pigney household!
I am not entitled to my state pension for another 7 years.
DWP have responded to each of my requests to pay additional contributions and provided a generous time frame in which payments should be made.
Is reminding people to take care of the environment a crime?
You posting it 3 times – is that vindictive “serving to vindicate someone or something” or perservative “used to preserve foodstuffs, wood, or other materials against decay” or do you think trying to save the planet is barmy “extremely foolish”.
Grahame Pigney
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Because she works in France she was able to pay Class 2 contributions (once the DWP was prepared to deal with her enquiry) as I had not worked in France I would have had to pay Class 3 contributions which cost far more.
Grahame Pigney
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Your encouragement and support are in a class of its own.
I sometimes wonder why I bother passing on this information to this group.
Grahame Pigney
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I wrote perseverative not preservative, vindictive not vindicative. There are significant differences in meaning.
You got barmy right, though.
OK, I was having a dig. But your reminders to do the right thing are pointless when endlessly repeated to people who receive your messages frequently. And provocative.
And perseverative. It’s a sign of organic brain disease. Look it up.
Perseveration according to psychology, psychiatry and speech and language pathology is the repetition of a particular response (such as a word, phrase, or gesture) regardless of the absence or cessation of a stimulus.
It is usually caused by a brain injury or other organic disorder.
Symptoms include "lacking ability to transition or switch ideas appropriately with the social context, as evidenced by the repetition of words or gestures after they have ceased to be socially relevant or appropriate"
