Is it worth paying National Insurance if you don't have to?

You can buy missed years back later, but it's more expensive. My mum had four children and was a SAHM with all four and she is apparently now, having retired, receiving less than half she would have been had she paid national insurance throughout that time. So I would have to say that, IME, if you can afford to keep paying it, do it.

You will be affected if you haven't made full contributions. Your best bet is to speak to the Contributions Office in Newcastle Upon Tyne as they will be able to give you an idea of what level your contributions are currently at and what they would advise based on your current situation.

http://aka.hmrc.gov.uk/nic/aboutus.htm

If you get child benefit then that entitles you to a "home responsibility" year so you're treated as if you've paid NI for that year.

Thanks all, will call the office. Iris, how many years would that be for? Sorry to be thick but I'll receive CB for the next 16+years?

Thanks again xx

They wrote to me a number of years back and told me cos I'd been at Uni for 5 years it would mean I wouldn't have been paying NI contributions for enough years to get an old age pension and invited me to pay more, I took the view that there would probably be no old age pension for me by the time I reach 65 anyway and declined. Bit p1ssed off actually as I have been working since I left Uni in 1995 and paying NI all that time, except for a few months when I was on Job Seekers and was still being credited with NI contributions.

Anyway, they wrote to me a few months back and told me the rules had changed and that I'd no longer need to make up the extra to get my full old age pension at 65. So I am pretty glad I declined their offer as I'll bet they wouldn't have been forthcoming with a refund of the £9 a month or so extra NI they asked me to pay .

My Mum is retired and trying to get 'home responsibility' for the years she was at home, but they want to see her child benefit books, which she doesn't have as it was over 30 years ago! So make sure you keep your books!

It should be every year so as long as you're in receipt of the benefit then you qualify. I think you can get an earnings related element which you have to be working to get. You need 30 or 35 years to get a full state pension so you can miss the odd year here and there. I don't worry too much as I can't see there being much in the way of state pension in 30 years when I retire anyway.

In some cases it is work buying extra years/deferring when you draw it etc but each case is different.

Wow! My Mum has worked on and off (employed some of the time, self employed at others) but been in receipt of CB for 29 years now so I was relying on home responsibility to make up the years that she hasn't been working. I have no idea if she has her records going back that far though! (Surely the Govt should know who they were paying CB to? Come to think of it, wasn't it on those CDs that were lost in the first "embarassing data protection incident"?)

books don't exist anymore, it's all electronic.

My mum has the same problem, she gave up work when my brother was born 28 years ago. She is 60 next year and was looking in to her state pension etc. They said the same as above, she contected the child benefit people but they said they only keep records for 5 years so she has no proof of her child benefit. Don't know what she's going to do next.