Partial Year NI Contributions after Redundancy

A question about : Partial Year NI Contributions after Redundancy

Does anyone know what constitutes a qualifying year for NI contributions? I have taken redundancy with 34 years and 9 months of contributions paid. I am not eligible for benefits and am not seeking employment nor am I of retirement age. Will I need to pay these missing weeks after the end of the Tax year?

Best answers:

• A 'qualifying year' is a tax year (April to April) during which you have paid, have been treated as having paid or have been credited with enough National Insurance Contributions (NICs) to make that year qualify towards a Basic State Pension.
  Since 1978 a qualifying year is one in which you have paid (or treated as having paid) contributions on earnings of at least 52 times the Lower Earnings Limit. For the year 2014-15 the lower earnings limit is Ј111/week (from Ј109 per week in 2013-14) so you would need to have been paying NICs on a salary of Ј5,668 at least.
  Since 6th April 2010.
  From 6th April 2010 a qualifying year is any year in which your earnings factor is equal to or more than the Lower Earnings Level for that year.
  Since 6th April 2010 the amount of qualifying years required to receive a full Basic State Pension is 30 years. If you have less than 30 years, you get a thirtieth (1/30) of the State Pension for each qualifying year.
  More than thirty qualifying years does not mean that you will get more than the full Basic State Pension though....so no you should not not need to pay any extra.
• Not eligible for contributions JSA they are not looking for work.
  Chances are they have assets to stop most means tested, stat redundancy would get them close if they earned over Ј24k with a Ј9k+payout.