UK authorities have effectively extended once again the deadline for people who worked in the UK for a number of years to lock in an enhanced state pension.
UK authorities are offering people who have at least three years' national insurance contributions the chance to purchase up to 17 years of social insurance stamps dating back to 2006 for as little as €3,640.
Hundreds of thousand of Irish people are among those who are eligible for the top-up to a pension that would run alongside the Irish State pension.
The extra years will allow many to hit the minimum 10 years of national insurance required to qualify for a UK state pension. Others will be able to boost the pension payable to them from the UK.
The deadline, which has already been extended twice, is April 5th, after which no new applications will be entertained, UK authorities have said. From April 6th, the ability to purchase additional contributions will be limited to the last six years.
However, due to a rush of last-minute enquiries, especially from expats and people from other countries who once worked in the UK, and the complexity of the process, people have been struggling to get through to Britain’s department of works and pensions' (DWP) future pension centre to make their claim.
As a result, the department is now allowing some leeway. Anyone who fills in a form requesting a callback from DWP staff before the April 5th deadline will be considered not to have missed the deadline. The form can be found here and anyone using it is advised to screenshot it before returning it to the department.
John Ring, operations director at Galway-based XtraPension, which is heavily involved in helping Irish residents make applications under the scheme, says people might have to wait up to eight weeks for a return call from the DWP but will not lose out.
Separately, the Irish National Pensions Helpline says it has developed a calculator designed to provide Irish people with clear and accurate information on what the UK scheme means for them.
The easy-to-use calculator – available here – allows people to check their eligibility, find out the cost and discover how much they could gain.
A spokesman from the British tax office said that, as of early February, 37,000 people had signed up for extra contributions, adding £35 million to the UK’s state pension pots.
“After the last minute chaos of the two previous deadlines, it is good to see some forward planning by the UK government to ensure that people don’t miss out on their UK state pension top-ups thanks to this simple callback form,” Mr Ring said.
“However, how this will work in practice with applications made after April 5th remains to be seen.”
You need 35 years of contributions for a full UK state pension – currently paid at £221.20 (€262.91) a week, a figure that will increase next month. Anyone with between 10 and 34 years of contributions receives the pension on a strict pro-rata basis.
The UK scheme is open to men born after April 6th, 1951 and women born after April 6th, 1953.
