Spring 2005 Newsletter
Content
Home Sweet Pension
Anything To Declare?
Death And Taxes
His And Hers
Oh, Gross!
We Didn't Mean It
Agassi Wins
Time To Go
It Could Be Worse...
Trivial Pursuit
Re: Mortgages
A Marriage Made In...
Time's Money
Show Business
Scam Of The Decade?
Gift Aid
Vat's Hot!
Wait For It
A Good Buy?
Know Your Articles
Rights And Wrongs
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A Good Buy?
You may have received a letter at some point explaining that your National Insurance Contributions were underpaid a few years ago, and you can pay the shortfall to complete your record. Should you pay it? After all, there are plenty of scams which read like this - asking you to pay for things which aren't needed, or ought to be free. The amount is usually fairly small, but you don't want to throw it away if it's not necessary.
Assuming the letter really comes from NICO in Newcastle, and their records are accurate - both worth checking - then it usually is a good investment. There's a mysterious relationship between paying your NIC over your working life and earning your State pension - not many people understand it exactly, but if you don't pay enough NIC over enough years, you won't get the State pension in full.
Of course, the State pension doesn't seem like much to write home about - but at the moment it's still likely to be a better deal than you will get by putting the same money into a personal pension scheme. It's almost certainly worth completing your contribution record.
Because of a mix-up in Newcastle a few years ago, a lot of people were not reminded to catch up, and the Revenue have recently extended the time limit for paying arrears. If you think you might have gaps in your NIC payments, it may be worth writing to find out how much pension you are entitled to, and whether you should be paying some arrears. If you want help to do this, we will be happy to provide it.
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