ex-pats NI contributions

Any of the ex-pats on here pay voluntary NI contributions?

I think its something I need to look into, probably need about 3 or 4 years to take me up to the full entitlement. The info on the hmrc website isn’t clear, wondering how it all works and how hard it was to set up?

Depends if you can trust the government with your money.In the nine years I have lived in Spain the contributions have gone from 40 years down to 30 and now back up to 35 years and I have to wait until I am 68 to get it.I am going to wait until I am close to retirement age and will pay it in a lump sum so that I get a full pension if it is worth having by then.I stopped working when I was 41 and still have 17 years to go.

I am going to wait until I am close to retirement age and will pay it in a lump sum

Are you sure you can do this? I think you can pay a few back dated years – 3 maybe 6 but not 17.

Yeah I heard similar, I think you have a 5 year window from leaving the country (stopping paying NI), to make up the shortfall and then continue on with the voluntary contributions. The voluntary contributions seem pretty small, can’t see the point in not making them.

TBH it’s not something I have thought about. Why would I want to do it? For a pension? I thought it had been discussed before that by the time most of us get to pensionable age there won’t be a state pension anyway.

i should probably look into this, too…

have been outside the UK for over five years now. this means that i no longer get the benefit of tax-free saving (ISAs).

i’ve not paid NI since the start of 2008.

but are pensions going to be worth that much when i’m old and foddery?

i’m pretty sure that i’ll get something from the UK; i had been paying between the ages of 16-25.

@ MSP & Roter Stern… do you pay into the German state pension? I’m self-employed and am therefore not “verpflichtet” to do so, but as such don’t know what i’d be looking at if and when i did so.

my financial advisor (my uncle) said that if i do want to be able to put money into an ISA/pension fund then i’d have to – on paper at least – return to the UK for a year.

Well from what I can make out, the voluntary contributions come to about 10 quid a month. It seems a safer investment gamble on the future than private pensions.
So by the time I hit retirement age, I should be able to claim a full UK state pension, 25 years of contributions into the German system, which I am not sure how much will pay out. And a small private pension. Which all in all should be a reasonably comfortable retirement.

@ MSP & Roter Stern… do you pay into the German state pension?

Yeah I have just started paying into the German system, I was paying into the UK system until recently.

what is the deal? worth while?

i know it makes sense, but i honestly don’t know if i’ll be around long enough to benefit from it.

hmmm…. money now, or money later (when i’m and too fragile to enjoy it)?

You’ve reminded me I need to get my act together and start doing this. I don’t think it will give me a lavish pension but the contributions are so small that it’s got to be worthwhile.

You can pay up to six years of missed contributions but having made voluntary contributions to get up to 30 years in they are not getting any more from me until I am near retirement age.

Well I am also self employed and pay both into the state pension here in Germany and have a sizable private pension which should see me sitting pretty when I am older all being well. I haven’t lived in the UK since ’98 apart from a brief stint in 2001 so from what people are saying it is too late for me anyway. 😐

^^ what is the deal with the German state pension?

and with you also being self-employed how do you decide what you pay into it? is it a percentage of yearly income or do you pay what you want?

i know i used to pay about 15-18 quid/month NI when in the UK (was self-employed there, too). guessing the Staat wants more than that.

I have got to say that I am pretty shocked at the minimal amount the self employed NI contributions are in the UK, it’s just another example of the average PAYE worker being screwed over to subsidise the rest of society.

guessing the Staat wants more than that.

They most certainly do, going from the UK system, that I was on initially here in Germany (so German tax + UK NI) to fully into the German system is costing me about 250 euros a month more.
I am not sure exactly how the system works, that covers my health insurance, pension and social provision tax. The later 2 of which are a fair bit more generous than the UK systems.

I could save money by going with private healthcare, but have been told that the private providers screw you as you get older, so it would be only worth it if I intended to leave Germany in 5 to 10 years.

^^ wow…. 250 is quite a fair whack!

Think I’ll keep it in my pocket, thanks.
I’m already paying 127/month for my (private) health insurance. That seems steep to me :-/

Not sure if I’m paying social provision. I’m certainly not paying church tax!

250 pales into insignificance next what his employer pays for health insurance for him. 250 sounds pretty good. I am paying double that for health insurance atm! 🙁 Don’t forget you haven’t got the extras like council tax to worry about.

I could save money by going with private healthcare, but have been told that the private providers screw you as you get older, so it would be only worth it if I intended to leave Germany in 5 to 10 years.

I was thrown out of my private health insurance because I cost them too much money with having three operations in eight years! You don’t get the perks with a state insurance (like having extra consultation times for privately insured patients etc) but the long term care is much better by the state.