Lehaut Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 Long story short, but can add more if it helps anyone. Both wife and I made sufficient Voluntary NICs at class 3 rates (then about £800 per missed year) some time ago to qualify for the "old" state pension. My wife "worked" in France for 7 years teaching English for 2 hours a week to our Notaire's daughter in Normandy. All done by the book with full paperwork (Notaire's husband is a lawyer), even appeared on our French tax return automatically, though not always accurately! Realised last year that my wife could top up her NIC contributions to eventually get the new state pension (over £200 a week cw £156 ) She rang the relevant UK pension authority in Feb 2023. A very helpful chap asked if she had ever worked in France. We thought initially the derisory couple of hours a week would not count, but he advised we try. The aim being for HMRC to class her as being employed and thus pay class 2 NIC for the missing 7 years necessary to take her up to the full 37 years contribution for the new pension. We wrote in March 2023. Got a reply yesterday from HMRC saying that they would accept the furnished French employment record and allowing her to pay Class 2 NIC at £163 per missing year instead of £900 class 3 for each of the 7 years! Quite a saving and worth the multiple phone calls, long waiting times and a year for a written reply. She just has to live long enough to benefit😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betise Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 I contacted HMRC several times before getting the answer I was looking for. I duly sent off the forms late last year, and I had an email to tell me that I should expect a reply in August this year. So I now mustn't pop my clogs before another 4 years have passed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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