18 months ago, we recruited someone who had years working at the Pension Service and the MAS thinking she would have some great working and technical knowledge already. Lovely person but f…k me, the level and quality of her technical knowledge was embarrassing and she couldn’t complete any task in anything like a timely manner. We tried, we really tried but after a year we had to send her on her way. She’s now working at a national pension scheme administrator and will no doubt be supplying the scheme members with loads of duff information.
I also once recruited someone from same. Assumption was that there would be some basic knowledge which we could build on and lots of inside knowledge of unpublished guidance etc. Oh dear.
A colleague once did some digging around the PS claim that their customers told them that they wanted contact by telephone to be the main route in. When the PS was created there was significant weight attached to said research. The implication was that it was independently done and on a statistically valid scale.
Took shout 18 months to establish that the whole basis for how the PS has worked for 2 decades was telephone interviews with existing claimants who of course all had telephones. All 83 of them.
You could have posted a similar story in the football thread, concerning Chelsea’s recruitment on a certain center forward 18 months.
Doesn’t prove all Inter Milan players are useless.
Always amused me that the HMRC office in Newcastle is planning on moving to a block being constructed for 2027 (I think) owned by a company registered in the BVI i.e. tax avoiders. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Of course the terrifying thing about HMRC is that it is effectively entirely privatised from top to bottom.
Well… I managed to make some Voluntary Contributions, for some past years, today. That part was easy and worked well - quick quick and hassle free.
But… I had tried several times to get thru on the DWP phone line - and gave up. 30 mins plus on hold, never spoke to a person. So… I tried the NI line instead. To try to get the 18 digit Ref No that I needed (the 18 digit number is generated specifically for the actual payment, amount & years, that you choose to make, I learned) . Took several calls - and then nearly an hour on hold - only to find I was in the wrong queue…!
But - I was then transferred quickly & efficiently to the right queue…! After that… it was easy…
Prompted by this thread I accessed my Govt Gateway pension info - they tell me I am eligible for £185.15 per week - from December 2031.
I bought a couple of extra years in mid-November. It was rather a pain to get a reference number, plus I wanted to buy the latest years as these were cheaper (they default to buying the earliest years). So I wasn’t confident given they hadn’t done anything since taking the November payment when I checked last month. I decided to wait a bit longer as communicating with them was just too daunting.
Today I checked and everything is in order!
All my years were about same amount - apart from the 1st/oldest one, which was part paid. I chose to pay that one, plus the next one. I plan to slowly, work my way through them - to spread the costs out. But I will wait to see the payments I have made go through first…!!
I did just a couple of years to make sure it achieved what I expected. I will add another two years which should get me close to the maximum. I’m hoping the process will be a bit easier. It can’t be any harder, that’s for sure!
Once I - finally - got a person, it was very quick and straightforward.
I was told I could re-use the same 18 digit code, for further payments - but I would then need to call them to get it allocated to the right years. Might as well just call & get a new number then.
Only if you live in the UK or have a UK address. For those of us outside the UK, their website requires a UK address and post code to complete the process, so the only way to get a state pension forecast is by phone initially to request one and then through international mail. I only mention this because I think there are quite a few ex-pat forumites here
Ian
How did you find out the amount you owed for each year.
Whenever I’ve got a quote, all they tell me is how many years I’ve paid.
Err, I clicked…
Go to your page on HMRC - tax.service.gov.uk/check-your-state-pension/account (*).
Scroll down - and you should see - ‘View gaps in your record…’
Click on that.
Pick a year -’ Year Is Not Full’ (meaning there is a shortfall)
Click on - ‘View Details’.
This will show you whats been paid and the amount needed to top up.
Or further down you can ‘Print This NI Record’ - which gives you a pdf with all the details.
(* - You will need to set up an Account if you don’t have one - which isn’t very easy… )
Ok Thanks.
If I get stuck setting up an account, I’ll be in touch.
I paid off a partial year 2 months and 3 days ago, but it’s still not showing. They quoted 6 weeks, but dont fancy hanging on the phone for 1+hours to check - anyone else got any examples on how long it takes, as it appeared to have taken @Ravvie 4 months.
WHEN… Its probably the most picky website I have ever used…!!!
Payment was 16 November, 4 months ago, but I only checked once a month so it was 3 to 4 months for me.
I’ve done it. Took about 10 minutes.
I chose credit details and P60 details as security checks.
It was for my wife. Fortunately she was able to remember when she took out a phone contract and opened up bank accounts etc.
Well Done…!!
I used my Driving Licence for one of mine. Problem was that the info on it was in a very small font and difficult to read. One error - rejected… Took me several failed attempts, until I realised…
But - once passed that, it works quite well…!!!
Thanks for starting up the thread again.
It appears my wife only needs to pay about £1200 to get her full pension, not the £3500 I thought she would need to pay. Although we need to act before 5 April.