[Finance] National Insurance confusion

[happypig]

Someone (most people probably) will know more than me....

Mrs H is a few months short of a full state pension on her NI record and she has been offered a part-time job which she hopes will fill the gap. I've looked online and I have found that she needs to earn over £123 per week to get a "stamp".
The job is a zero-hours contract and it will be around minimum wage. The question is, if she earns over £123 one week and under it the next, will she get a NI credit for one week or does she have to be consistently over the threshold to get it ?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Someone (most people probably) will know more than me....

Mrs H is a few months short of a full state pension on her NI record and she has been offered a part-time job which she hopes will fill the gap. I've looked online and I have found that she needs to earn over £123 per week to get a "stamp".
The job is a zero-hours contract and it will be around minimum wage. The question is, if she earns over £123 one week and under it the next, will she get a NI credit for one week or does she have to be consistently over the threshold to get it ?

My understanding is as she will be paye it will be triggered to pay if she earns over the lower limit at each pay round I.e 4 weekly = £492 she will pay NI.

At the end of the tax year if she is below the threshold for the year she can pay extra directly (she may be able to do so now to if you look at her record)

https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

 

[Cotton Socks]

You can make voluntary contribution that may plug the gap. Here's a link the explains it by Martin Lewis.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/

 

[Super Steve Earle]

Unless she starts drawing her State Pension as soon as she stops the P/T job, she'll have loads of time to wait on the phone while they check and advise her. Easy process and they tell you if she any years to make up. Do it if you can max it out. I paid up 3 years for Mrs Earle, well worth it.

 

[East Staffs Gull]

My understanding is as she will be paye it will be triggered to pay if she earns over the lower limit at each pay round I.e 4 weekly = £492 she will pay NI.

At the end of the tax year if she is below the threshold for the year she can pay extra directly (she may be able to do so now to if you look at her record)

https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

So, if she is paid weekly, NI contributions will be calculated weekly.

 

[Baldseagull]

Someone (most people probably) will know more than me....

Mrs H is a few months short of a full state pension on her NI record and she has been offered a part-time job which she hopes will fill the gap. I've looked online and I have found that she needs to earn over £123 per week to get a "stamp".
The job is a zero-hours contract and it will be around minimum wage. The question is, if she earns over £123 one week and under it the next, will she get a NI credit for one week or does she have to be consistently over the threshold to get it ?

I believe they look for 12 months of contributions rather than 52 weeks, so if she hits the mark over a month she should get a stamp. If you are looking at topping up, you need to work out if it is worth it, in some cases topping up a few years is worth it, but topping up further years would produce only a few pence in additional Pension, depending on your circumstances.
If she has claimed Child Benefit I believe that counts as up to 12 contributing years, one reason why it is worth claiming even if you, her husband, were earning over the threshold for being entitled to payments, she would still get the NI credits.
Job seekers claimants that worked less than 16 hours a week also get credits I believe. It might be worth looking into the benefits system, even if not eligble for payments, it could cover any NI gaps in this casual employment. JSA for instance is not affected by your savings, but you are expected to be looking for full time work while on it.
Topping up directly might be worth it, but it is a fairly complex system, you say she is a few months short, to be a few months short could mean 6 months in one year, meaning topping up probably isn't worth it, or 1 month short in 6 years, which probably is worth topping up.

 

[Blue3]

I chose to retire age 60 in Doing so I was short of NI contribution’s so paid for voluntary contributions for 4 years to make up the difference but you need to keep an eye of it each year as you will not be informed once you have payed the required amount also it’s likely you will reach a point that paying in any more while not reaching the maximum pension as the amount you are likely to be paid out will not reach your expected life span

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

So, if she is paid weekly, NI contributions will be calculated weekly.

The problem is the way PAYE works now is it calculates a projection of earnings every time an entry is made. This can cause issues if the employee is just on the lower thresholds or for those receiving a yearly bonus and the system believing they will be earning a large salary.