r1200gs
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Post by r1200gs on May 24, 2021 9:15:38 GMT
Seems to be a bit of a minefield and I have painful memories of finding a financial advisor at random many years back, just struck me that the fine folks on this forum might be able to help.
Looking for a personal recommendation for a pensions/financial advisor, preferably in the north of England but not essential. I'll chuck the situation out there for anyone that wants to chip in but assume I know nothing about the current UK pension situation, you'll be right.
Been abroad for decades and have no idea how it works in the UK now.
I have not kept up national insurance payments (can I backdate payments that far, should I?).
I have pension from 20 years employment in the EU (though that's another mystery to get to the bottom of.)
I am a higher rate tax payer with no mortgage or rent to pay so I can make significant pension contributions.
47 years of age.
I just took a quick look and my eyes quickly glazed from a maze of unfamiliar terms and a language that appears more difficult than French.
So general hints would be great, a referral to a trusted trusted advisor would be great too.
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Post by mfaxford on May 24, 2021 10:01:05 GMT
I have not kept up national insurance payments (can I backdate payments that far, should I?). I don't have much advice but... You can get a summary of what NI contributions you've made which summarises what's counted as a complete year and what's a partial year. It's also possible to top up some years (possibly limited to the last 7 years). For a full state pension I think you need 35 completed years of NI contributions. (most of that is based on memory from looking a few years ago so might have some errors, and could of course change before you get to retirement).
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Post by bernythedolt on May 24, 2021 11:18:42 GMT
Take advice before making voluntary Class3 NICs for years pre-2016 when our state pension was majorly overhauled. They will still happily take your money, even if it can result in no uplift to your state pension! I know of somebody who did just that... no refunds given if you buy the 'wrong' years.
I myself have purchased post-2016 years because they are a bit of a bargain (for my particular circumstances - yours will be different).
You are wise to seek an advisor. The Pensions Advisory Service may be a good place to start.
Just be aware that you may not need to purchase all the pre-2016 years they offer you for sale, but any post-2016 are quite likely to benefit you. This little 2016 nuance is not widely advertised.
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keitha
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2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on May 24, 2021 12:44:08 GMT
From a personal point of view I worked in local Government for over 35 years. I knew I was contracted out of the state second pension.
I was shocked to find that under the new rules I was 8 years short of a full pension, fortunately by running my own small business I can make voluntary contributions and will end up a few pounds a week short . Voluntary NI costs me a little over £3 a week, but for every year I contribute I gain £4 a week on my pension ( Which IMHO makes it a no brainer ).
One thing that needs to be looked at is My Birthday is the end of February so 11 months into the year but I can't pay in for that year.
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Post by bernythedolt on May 24, 2021 15:45:53 GMT
From a personal point of view I worked in local Government for over 35 years. I knew I was contracted out of the state second pension. I was shocked to find that under the new rules I was 8 years short of a full pension, fortunately by running my own small business I can make voluntary contributions and will end up a few pounds a week short . Voluntary NI costs me a little over £3 a week, but for every year I contribute I gain £4 a week on my pension ( Which IMHO makes it a no brainer ). One thing that needs to be looked at is My Birthday is the end of February so 11 months into the year but I can't pay in for that year. Just to clarify, you don't have to be running a small business, or working at all, in order to make voluntary NI contributions.
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james100
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Post by james100 on May 24, 2021 15:46:20 GMT
Seems to be a bit of a minefield and I have painful memories of finding a financial advisor at random many years back, just struck me that the fine folks on this forum might be able to help. Looking for a personal recommendation for a pensions/financial advisor, preferably in the north of England but not essential. I'll chuck the situation out there for anyone that wants to chip in but assume I know nothing about the current UK pension situation, you'll be right. Been abroad for decades and have no idea how it works in the UK now. I have not kept up national insurance payments (can I backdate payments that far, should I?). I have pension from 20 years employment in the EU (though that's another mystery to get to the bottom of.) I am a higher rate tax payer with no mortgage or rent to pay so I can make significant pension contributions. 47 years of age. I just took a quick look and my eyes quickly glazed from a maze of unfamiliar terms and a language that appears more difficult than French. So general hints would be great, a referral to a trusted trusted advisor would be great too. General hint on UK state pension: for your NI gap years if you worked and paid social security whilst abroad AND worked in the UK immediately before leaving, AND you’ve previously lived in the UK for at least 3 years in a row or paid at least 3 years of contributions then you can back fill your gap years with Class 2 contributions ( ref here). That's an 80% reduction versus Class 3 rates. Deadlines given here for back payments so looks like if you take action this year you can theoretically go back to 2006. As per bernythedolt advice, check if you want to do that. You need a min 10 years NI (I think this still includes EU years of equivalent state pension) and max 35 years for full UK state based on current rules. But the amount of cash EU years represent is tunneled from the applicable country of origin rules and that will be more generous than UK. Those years also should not contribute to the maxing out of UK state pension at 35 years UK contributions - they are 2 separate state pensions from different states. Thus, as I understand it, it's perfectly possible as a returning expat to back fill NI gaps via Class 2 voluntary contributions (assuming eligibility requirements met) and go back to work in UK contributing the standard way if PAYE, while having contributed to an EU state pension and continuing to do so via voluntary contributions there once they have returned to the UK. No laws against aggregated state pension payouts exceeding 100% of the UK maximum. There are very few competent general financial or tax advisors for expat/returning expats in this country but plenty that claim to be so and will charge you handsomely for that. I'm including the big ones in my slurs  If you have any specific questions I'm happy to point you in (hopefully) the right direction. Not an advisor etc but have been in a similar situation to you and survived.
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Post by bernythedolt on May 24, 2021 17:23:49 GMT
From a personal point of view I worked in local Government for over 35 years. I knew I was contracted out of the state second pension. I was shocked to find that under the new rules I was 8 years short of a full pension, fortunately by running my own small business I can make voluntary contributions and will end up a few pounds a week short . Voluntary NI costs me a little over £3 a week, but for every year I contribute I gain £4 a week on my pension ( Which IMHO makes it a no brainer ). One thing that needs to be looked at is My Birthday is the end of February so 11 months into the year but I can't pay in for that year. Pah, I spit on your mere 35 years.  I worked (contracted out, like the majority) continuously for 40 years and ended up with a full 43 years' worth of NI contributions. Like yourself, I was equally shocked to find I still fell about £40 a week short of the full new state pension, despite 43 full years of stamp! That's why I've had to purchase four additional post-2016 years - the maximum permitted in my case - to have 47 years in total. Even my 47 years of stamp doesn't get the maximum SP of £179pw, but those extra four years have reduced my £40 shortfall down to a £20 shortfall, for life (at a cost of ~£3k). It's down to being contracted out and they assure me it's all perfectly fair... Re your February birthday, mine is similarly late in the tax year, but they have to draw the line somewhere. It's complex enough dealing in whole years, I doubt they'd cope well with fractions! 
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r1200gs
Member of DD Central
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Post by r1200gs on May 25, 2021 9:45:53 GMT
Seems to be a bit of a minefield and I have painful memories of finding a financial advisor at random many years back, just struck me that the fine folks on this forum might be able to help. Looking for a personal recommendation for a pensions/financial advisor, preferably in the north of England but not essential. I'll chuck the situation out there for anyone that wants to chip in but assume I know nothing about the current UK pension situation, you'll be right. Been abroad for decades and have no idea how it works in the UK now. I have not kept up national insurance payments (can I backdate payments that far, should I?). I have pension from 20 years employment in the EU (though that's another mystery to get to the bottom of.) I am a higher rate tax payer with no mortgage or rent to pay so I can make significant pension contributions. 47 years of age. I just took a quick look and my eyes quickly glazed from a maze of unfamiliar terms and a language that appears more difficult than French. So general hints would be great, a referral to a trusted trusted advisor would be great too. I'm including the big ones in my slurs If you have any specific questions I'm happy to point you in (hopefully) the right direction. Not an advisor etc but have been in a similar situation to you and survived. This is exactly my concern. Some very helpful info in there for me to work on, thank you.
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aju
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Post by aju on May 25, 2021 12:32:30 GMT
Ok so i'm not sure if these links will help www.royallondon.com/media/good-with-your-money-guides/the-new-state-pension-your-questions-answered/shows some interesting answers to some of your questions - be aware though that royal london are after your custom so use them as info to help. This next link is a flow chart based PDF again from Royal London but it was originally used by Steve Webb - he has a column in the daily mail still! and was the MP for pensions area I think when this stuff was changing I seem to recall. The PDF has not changed much for some time and this links version seems to be dated 2018/19 but there may be a more recent version but to be honest it's probably not changed that much if at all. www.royallondon.com/siteassets/site-docs/media-centre/good-with-your-money-guides/topping-up-your-state-pension-guide.pdfFor your info I left BT at the age of 53 - kings shilling and all that after 36 years service with GPO and BT along the way. In mine and Mrs Aju's case we have both used the post 2016 Class 3 topups in my case i was able to get my nSP that started last year up to £156 (Not enough years to contribute) and Mrs Aju has hers up to full NSp all bar a £1 a week. She does have 2 more years still before she reaches 66. But sadly paying the full Class 3 for the final year would only get her another £52 a year which clearly would be a loss. Should you decide to top up using class 3 voluntaries, bear in mind that you must be very clear what years you are paying for and even then they could make mistakes. One of my years they decided to ignore my clear letter what year i wanted and just topped up my empty NI contribution for a pre 2016 year which would not have gained me anything for the £760 odd contribution i made. I managed to get it put into the right years after a couple of stern letters but sometimes it can be a bit of a cwap shoot no matter how clear one makes it. (You seem to have to ring up at present rather then be able to send a letter in these times) I would say this is not that difficult to do yourself once you understand the flow charts in the PDF above and chose the right options. I would suggest that you also do a little bit of looking at the DM in this area - it's not my favourite paper other than that Mr Webb is a trusted advocate of all this stuff I think you may want to do. If you are still self employed and able to get the NI cover for the years from 2016 on that you may not as yet have - I'd recommend others comments about checking your current NI years position by getting online access to your NI stuff on gov.uk, if you haven't already that is. There are probably links on Mr Lewis's site that will help too but to be honest in both our cases we were DB pensioners that were no longer working or running businesses - It sounds much cheaper what you paid if it was post 2016 contributions. Anyway i hope that points you in the direction that may help you. Disclaimer: I am not an expert in this stuff and definitely not an advisor or worse advising you to do any of this or follow any of the links i have given you above. Just offering the links to start looking further. I definitely wouldn't pay anyone to look at this but that's just me - plenty of time on my hands to investigate and understand. To be sure an advisor will charge for this stuff even though the info is freely available. |
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aju
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Post by aju on May 25, 2021 18:19:21 GMT
Since i posted my notes and links above i read the 2018 pdf notes and noticed that this document may be more use as it has details of the most recent pension amounts and all the ones previous too!. researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05649/SN05649.pdfHope this helps as some of the numbers detailed in the flowcharts are a little out of date. Anyway good luck to anyone who might find this useful. Just ask if you have any questions or cannot find what you think you need. I would also point out that whilst class3 voluntary full year works out at £14+ per week (It has to be paid as a lump sum for each year at different rates but the sooner you sort it the better the price) it only takes about 4 years, depending on tax positions, to actually start paying back. Another thing I also thought of is anyone is considering deferring the receipt of the NSP should remember that whilst it may be an advantage tax wise it does take a considerable time to make up the amount one would have got during the deferral period. I think it's about 14-17 years but i cant find my charts at the moment and different people may have differing timescales. Again Mr Webb does discuss this stuff in the DM the following link collected some usefull ones together recently. www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-7785955/Steve-Webbs-best-pension-columns-12-Christmas-crackers.html Sorry i forgot this stuff earlier but my excuse is that i had to go and pick Mrs Aju and my daughter up from their fancy SPA visit and was a bit rushed. (cost a pretty penny but it keeps them happy! ) |
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keitha
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2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on May 25, 2021 19:04:53 GMT
From a personal point of view I worked in local Government for over 35 years. I knew I was contracted out of the state second pension. I was shocked to find that under the new rules I was 8 years short of a full pension, fortunately by running my own small business I can make voluntary contributions and will end up a few pounds a week short . Voluntary NI costs me a little over £3 a week, but for every year I contribute I gain £4 a week on my pension ( Which IMHO makes it a no brainer ). One thing that needs to be looked at is My Birthday is the end of February so 11 months into the year but I can't pay in for that year. Just to clarify, you don't have to be running a small business, or working at all, in order to make voluntary NI contributions. as a small business I can pay in at £3 a week
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Post by crabbyoldgit on May 29, 2021 19:01:26 GMT
i to was a 41 years man and boy bt man and due to being contracted out was not going to get a full state pension . So me and the wife both created small bussinesses one in each name, profit £1000 each , used the £1000 no records no proof required tax expense allowance hence no over all profit.Payed and for the wife still pay nics 3 low profit contributions. So for the last tax year it was £159 and it increased my state pension by near as dam it £5 a week so provided i last about 32 weeks i am in profit £5 a week for life. Peer to peer , stocks shares returns, eat your hearts out,£250 a year no risk return on £159 investment for life, more please. Reached 66 this year. I have advised all my ex work mates to do the same.
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Post by bernythedolt on May 30, 2021 11:52:18 GMT
i to was a 41 years man and boy bt man and due to being contracted out was not going to get a full state pension . So me and the wife both created small bussinesses one in each name, profit £1000 each , used the £1000 no records no proof required tax expense allowance hence no over all profit.Payed and for the wife still pay nics 3 low profit contributions. So for the last tax year it was £159 and it increased my state pension by near as dam it £5 a week so provided i last about 32 weeks i am in profit £5 a week for life. Peer to peer , stocks shares returns, eat your hearts out,£250 a year no risk return on £159 investment for life, more please. Reached 66 this year. I have advised all my ex work mates to do the same. Forgive me, but when I hear "no records, no proof required" that triggers thoughts of loopholes, and possibly even skating close to potentially verging on fraud. I know nothing about this, but presumably the businesses have to be legitimate and not just a device to fiddle the system? If one is selected for audit, and can demonstrate no attempt to trade, advertise or offer some service, could one risk being charged with fraud? Not something I would want to face in retirement, or indeed at any age. Hence I paid the full voluntary Class 3 rate of ~£750pa......five times your figures. I'm probably a mug, but I do like to sleep well at night. So is this all legit and a genuine loophole, or a little bit shady?
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Post by crabbyoldgit on May 30, 2021 14:14:39 GMT
The £1000 expenses allowance is absolutly straight brought in initially for small traders on ebay and such and then extended to all other bussinesses provided no other expenses are claimed. There can only be one expenses claim per individual not several claims over many seperate operations and of course claimed on ones self assessed tax return.Handing out a few receipts for little jobs done,as a ex enginner in a older retirement area the door does tend to get knocked for little jobs, proves tradeing for what would have have a few quid for a drink and keeps everthing nice and straight.Its very little effort and has nearly repaired my nics record but not completely. As for my wife the same but as i am 14 years older than her and likely to shake of this mortal coil long before her,how else am i to protect even a modest future for her as after my death. She now has to gain her own nics record to qualify for any state pension and all future state benifits are likely to be heavily means tested against very modest savings, £18000 pounds and i think your on your own.
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aju
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Post by aju on May 30, 2021 16:10:59 GMT
i to was a 41 years man and boy bt man and due to being contracted out was not going to get a full state pension . So me and the wife both created small bussinesses one in each name, profit £1000 each , used the £1000 no records no proof required tax expense allowance hence no over all profit.Payed and for the wife still pay nics 3 low profit contributions. So for the last tax year it was £159 and it increased my state pension by near as dam it £5 a week so provided i last about 32 weeks i am in profit £5 a week for life. Peer to peer , stocks shares returns, eat your hearts out,£250 a year no risk return on £159 investment for life, more please. Reached 66 this year. I have advised all my ex work mates to do the same. Forgive me, but when I hear "no records, no proof required" that triggers thoughts of loopholes, and possibly even skating close to potentially verging on fraud. I know nothing about this, but presumably the businesses have to be legitimate and not just a device to fiddle the system? If one is selected for audit, and can demonstrate no attempt to trade, advertise or offer some service, could one risk being charged with fraud? Not something I would want to face in retirement, or indeed at any age. Hence I paid the full voluntary Class 3 rate of ~£750pa......five times your figures. I'm probably a mug, but I do like to sleep well at night. So is this all legit and a genuine loophole, or a little bit shady? Myself and Mrs Aju are similar to yourself bernythedolt in that we just paid the full class 3's as neither of us were working and it seemed a good deal to us and like you we are very happy with our deal and are now as paid up as we can be anyway. In our cases we have to just live just under 4 years to be in profit for the rest of our lives. Neither of us have actually worked for ourselves although i personally have helped friends with their businesses where i could in terms of spreadsheets and other software tools etc. They had accountants and the like but my involvement was as simple as just understanding their needs and their business's to add some value from my s/w design skill sets - I did visit with their accountants a few times in the early stages of their businesses and do still help every now and again when the systems i built for them need slight tweaks for new rules and their changing work practices. Whilst i'm sure that what the OP is doing would be legit - i assume this as this is not the best place to declare one's processes if one is not actually playing a fair game tax/hmrc wise. I would also add that had we not been fully paid up I might have been investigating this further. That said knowing how flakey ebay and amazon seem to be from a customers perspective i'm not sure i would want to be trying to earn from them if i had other options - too much like hard work if you ask me!. Also I guess i was just spoilt by the kings shilling i took from the company i worked for for leaving!.
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