National Insurance contributions after Migration to Australia

Many people who migrate away from the UK, wonder about keeping up their National Insurance payments towards a future UK State Pension.

Gaps in your National Insurance contributions record can reduce the basic state pension you receive when you retire, as 30 years total contributions are currently required to get the full pension.

We do have the option to keep paying voluntary contributions after we emigrate, although whether this is worthwhile or not is not an easy thing for me to answer, as I feel that it may be worthwhile for some, but not for others.

However, if a person chooses to keep on making contributions, it may be best to make the Class 2 contribution.

2010-11 National Insurance Contribution rates

  • Class 2 £ 2.40 pw
  • Class 3 £12.05 pw

Source: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm

How to pay self-employed Class 2 National Insurance

How to pay voluntary Class 3 National Insurance

Those of us who migrate to Australia, amongst a few other countries, should be fully aware that any state pension that we receive, will NOT be index linked in the same way that UK state pensions are in the UK and in many other countries.

Links:

Download voluntary NIC information from HMRC (PDF, 130K)

State pension forecasts from Directgov

State Pension Forecasting Team Helpline – UK: 0845 3000 168

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