Irish people who worked in the UK get more time to top-up British pension

Pensions

Charlie Weston

PEOPLE who worked in the UK have been given two more years to benefit from a special concession to top up their state pension from the British government.

The British government has announced that the deadline for people to plug the gaps in their National Insurance (NI) record to boost their UK state pension has been extended to April 2025.

People who worked in Britain can normally fill in gaps in their NI record over the previous six years.

However, as part of the transitional arrangements to the new UK state pension in 2016, people have been able to make voluntary contributions to fill up any gaps in their NI record between April 2006 and April 2016.

The deadline for making these additional payments was originally April this year. That was extended to July 31 this year.

It has now pushed the deadline onto April 5, 2025.

This means there is now bigger opportunity for these people to add up to 16 extra years to their UK pension.

Opting for the special top up could be hugely beneficial, allowing people to get a much higher pension from Britain in addition to any pensions they are due to get from this country, according to Frank Buckley of USP Financial, a Co Offlay-based firm that specialises in helping returned immigrants secure their UK state pension entitlements.

He said that under the UK system people are normally allowed pay for a maximum of six historic years missing from their national insurance (NI) record there. NI is the equivalent of PRSI here.

“They are missing because they did not work in the UK in those years because they left the country,” Mr Buckley said.

The cost of filling one year’s gap is currently £907.40 (€1,057), said experts in pensions company Canada Life in the UK.

The additional benefit is currently around £303 (€353) a year.

Canada Life said people would need to live around three years to get your money back.

Mr Buckley explained that the opportunity to top-up a UK pension comes about after the introduction of what was called the New State Pension.

Under the old state pension people required 30 qualifying years on their NI record to secure the full standard rate which is currently £141.85 (€160.82) per week. This is increasing to £156.20 per week from mid-April.

With the new pension people are now required to have 35 qualifying years on their NI record to reach the full standard rate of £185.15 per week. This is increasing to £203.85 from mid-April.

“Anybody whose qualifying years straddles pre and post-April 2016 will have a hybrid state pension entitlement consisting of the old and the new state pensions.”

When it made the changes the British government introduced a concession allowing a wider window for paying historic years to encourage people to maximise their NI records.

This means people can currently pay for a maximum of 16 historical years (2006/07 to 2021/22) missing from their NI record.

Normally you can only pay for a maximum of six years.