Have you topped up a UK pension to cover gaps?

[MattA]

• you paid the voluntary contributions you applied for on or before 5 April 2027

This one is interesting. Because the most recent of the "contributions you applied for" aren't otherwise due for up to 5 or 6 years. I presume to be on the safe side if you are in the situation of not meeting the 10 years' residence requirement then you really do have to make a call now whether you might ever want to pay class 3s in the future and pay up all your available backdated class 2s before next April?

It's confusingly worded though, because what are "the voluntary contributions you applied for" exactly? CF83 doesn't ask you to nominate specific years. You just fill in your details and eventually get a letter telling you if you are eligible and these are the periods (going back 6 years, usually) that are available to be paid at these rates and by these dates. So which ones out of those did you "apply for". All of them?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This one is interesting. Because the most recent of the "contributions you applied for" aren't otherwise due for up to 5 or 6 years. I presume to be on the safe side if you are in the situation of not meeting the 10 years' residence requirement then you really do have to make a call now whether you might ever want to pay class 3s in the future and pay up all your available backdated class 2s before next April?

It's confusingly worded though, because what are "the voluntary contributions you applied for" exactly? CF83 doesn't ask you to nominate specific years. You just fill in your details and eventually get a letter telling you if you are eligible and these are the periods (going back 6 years, usually) that are available to be paid at these rates and by these dates. So which ones out of those did you "apply for". All of them?

You can select which class 2 years you want to pay. I only paid like 14, because the other years were a mix of 2+3 and so expensive.

 

[SydneySwan]

Class 2 are so cheap I wouldn't be hanging around in paying them before the 5 April rather than risk a subsequent reclarification of the rules that insists you pay Class 3.

 

[MattA]

You can select which class 2 years you want to pay. I only paid like 14, because the other years were a mix of 2+3 and so expensive.

Yeah I know you can normally. But for someone who otherwise misses the ten year cutoff these new rules say that in order to use the old residence rules moving forward they have to pay "the voluntary contributions [they] applied for". I'm not sure that's clear at all since you don't apply to pay for specific years. Is it all the years you were eligible to pay? Just the latest one?

(It doesn't affect me -- I just thought it was confusing wording).