Expat teacher Liz Milintacupt-Taylor has had to stay abroad and continue to work as her state pension top-up payment has not been processed.
The 68-year-old wanted to top up her National Insurance record so she could qualify for the state pension.
But her retirement plans were left up in the air after Government staff failed to respond to her pleas for help, despite her long wait to get this sorted.
She paid £9,000 towards her National Insurance record in 2020, however, it is only recently she received her monthly sum.
The lack of urgency in the issue is said to date from the big rush to boost state pensions from around January onwards
Ms Milintacupt-Taylor contacted This is Money from Thailand and said: “I’m doing online tutoring to keep afloat and unfortunately my savings are going down dramatically.
“I have every intention of returning to the UK to live but cannot at the moment until this is nearly sorted out.”
This is not an isolated incident. Complaints about lost state pension top-ups cash continue to be reported despite the Government stating this month: “There is no general delay in the processing of payments.”
Ms Milintacupt-Taylor needed to top up her National Insurance contributions to meet the minimum of 10 qualifying years required to receive a state pension, but her payments were never processed nor her record updated.
She said: “I applied for a pension as a resident of the UK as I fully intended to come back.
“I have now written to both DWP and HMRC apprising them of the situation and according to my Gateway account, I will receive a reply in April 2024!!! I will be almost 69 years old. Not great.”
After a lot of back and forth with DWP and HMRC and support from This is Money, Ms Milintacupt-Taylor has had 15 years added to her state pension record.
She now has the choice between a £110 a week state pension plus a one-year backpayment of nearly £8,700, or a higher state pension going forward.
Steve Webb, former pensions minister and now a partner at LCPP said: “It is shocking that HMRC are sitting on people’s money that has not been allocated to the relevant National Insurance account.
“They need to be much more proactive in tracking down where this money belongs so that people’s pensions can be properly boosted.”
He added: “Given the volume of people reporting problems and delays, it is very surprising to see HMRC claim that there is no general issue.
“If there isn’t a problem, HMRC should tell us exactly how many people are still waiting and how long they have had to wait.”
Britons ages 45 and above have until April 5, 2025, to buy back any missing National Insurance years from 2006 to 2016.
This can prove very lucrative, as some people are on course to make over £50,000 in boosts to their state pension.
The full ‘new’ state pension is currently £203.85 a week – however, how much one receives depends on how many ‘qualifying’ full national insurance (NI) years they have.
In general, people need around 35 full NI years to get the maximum state pension, and 10 years to get any pension at all.
Most collect NI years through working and paying NI, but they can also get them if you’re claiming benefits or caring for others.
