{"id":10138,"date":"2023-05-16T14:55:17","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T13:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/?p=10138"},"modified":"2023-05-16T14:55:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T13:55:10","slug":"minding-the-gap-nics-top-up-deadline-extended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/news\/minding-the-gap-nics-top-up-deadline-extended\/","title":{"rendered":"Minding the gap: NICs top-up deadline extended"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>The rush to meet the voluntary national insurance contributions (NICs) top-up deadline of 5 April has forced HMRC to grant an extension to 31 July. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p>The last major reform to state pensions took effect on 6 April 2016. From that date the second state pension and basic state pension were replaced by the new state pension for anyone reaching State pension age. The new state pension was higher than its basic predecessor, but it came with two less attractive features:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Instead of a minimum of one year\u2019s NICs record to claim any entitlement, the requirement was raised to ten years; and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>The NIC record needed to obtain the full pension was increased from 30 years to 35 years.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To help people fill gaps in their NIC record and thereby gain more state pension, the government relaxed the normal rule that voluntary NICs to infill missing years could be back dated by no more than six years. Instead, voluntary contributions covering the ten years before the start of the new regime could be made at any time up to 5 April 2023. This loosening of the rules was first announced in April 2013.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>A necessary extension<\/b><\/h5>\n<p>As can happen when deadlines are set a decade into the future, their relevance can be forgotten or ignored until nearly the last moment, at which point there is a mad rush \u2013 think of ISA tax-year-end investment but multiplied by ten. On this occasion, the surge was exacerbated by stories in the national press giving extreme (but accurate) examples where a single payment of \u00a3824 can make the difference between no pension and one of over \u00a33,000 a year. In more normal instances, the \u00a3824 could buy an extra \u00a3302 a year of pension \u2013 still a highly attractive deal.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the deadline rush meant a flood of enquiries for HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions, neither of which are renowned for their swift responses. By early March, the Treasury was forced to announce that \u201cTo ensure customers do not miss out, the government intends to extend the 5 April deadline to pay voluntary NICs to 31 July this year.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you think this could be relevant to you and you have not yet taken any action, then you need to do so now. Another deadline extension is most unlikely.<\/p>\n\n<!-- wp:themify-builder\/canvas \/-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rush to meet the voluntary national insurance contributions (NICs) top-up deadline of 5 April has forced HMRC to grant an extension to 31 July. \u00a0 The last major reform to state pensions took effect on 6 April 2016. From that date the second state pension and basic state pension were replaced by the new [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":160,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}