Ideco Contributions increase

[adamu]

want to apply for the new increased limit (75,000 yen)

Do you have an official source that this is the case? On SBI they only discuss revisions for category 2 insured persons.

https://go.sbisec.co.jp/prd/ideco/news_240729.html

In any case, on SBI you apply to change the amount by requesting a paper form here:

https://go.sbisec.co.jp/prd/ideco/application.html

[beanhead]

Do you have an official source that this is the case? On SBI they only discuss revisions for category 2 insured persons.

Jumping the gun, I think. This is part of the planned change that has not started yet, isn't it?

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

Trying also to get my spouse signed up for the UK pension and strongly encouraging my teenager children to get their National insurance numbers!!!!

Best of British with this! How's your experience of the NINO application process?

Unfortunately despite my wife having a national insurance number, she has not lived in the UK consecutively for three years. Once for a year and before that for six months. This was before Brexit so Poles could apply for a national insurance number. My son is 15 years old, but I am planning to visit the UK when he is 16 and going direct to the national insurance office.

[kuma]

My son is 15 years old, but I am planning to visit the UK when he is 16 and going direct to the national insurance office.

This is the way!

Unfortunately despite my wife having a national insurance number, she has not lived in the UK consecutively for three years. Once for a year and before that for six months. This was before Brexit so Poles could apply for a national insurance number.

So the NINO hurdle has been cleared.

How about residency in EU/EEA/Switzerland/Turkey to 'top up' the required period of residency?

If you lived or worked in an EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland or Turkey, time spent there may help you to meet condition 2(a) or 2(b).

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... broad-ni38

Whilst an EU member state, the UK was subject to EU social security coordination, which in many cases made national insurance records portable between member states, so if she was resident in Poland (or another qualifying country) for a continuous period of 3+ years (which may or may not be joined together with either of her UK periods of residency), she may well qualify.
https://employment-social-affairs.ec.eu ... ination_en

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

My son is 15 years old, but I am planning to visit the UK when he is 16 and going direct to the national insurance office.

This is the way!

Unfortunately despite my wife having a national insurance number, she has not lived in the UK consecutively for three years. Once for a year and before that for six months. This was before Brexit so Poles could apply for a national insurance number.

So the NINO hurdle has been cleared.

How about residency in EU/EEA/Switzerland/Turkey to 'top up' the required period of residency?

If you lived or worked in an EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland or Turkey, time spent there may help you to meet condition 2(a) or 2(b).

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... broad-ni38

Whilst an EU member state, the UK was subject to EU social security coordination, which in many cases made national insurance records portable between member states, so if she was resident in Poland (or another qualifying country) for a continuous period of 3+ years (which may or may not be joined together with either of her UK periods of residency), she may well qualify.
https://employment-social-affairs.ec.eu ... ination_en

Thank you for your very detailed explanations, and I am determined to follow them up!!! but my wife has lived most of her working life in Japan with some quite big gaps when she was bringing up the chidren.

[kuma]

my wife has lived most of her working life in Japan with some quite big gaps when she was bringing up the chidren.

How about non-working life, eg childhood?

The door is open for those with NINOs who have had 3+yrs of UK residency without NI contributions (eg residency during childhood), and my understanding is that equivalency is granted for EU/EEA/+ residency, purely for the purposes of meeting the qualification criteria and NOT for calculation of benefits ( so for 'aggregation', which would be good for her case.)

The below resource (prior to Brexit deal) supports this understanding: https://brexitlegal.ie/wp-content/uploa ... nsions.pdf

Also, if your wife is in a certain cohort with respect to (a) age, and (b) date of inbound migration to UK/first receipt of NINO (from 6 April 1975 to 5 April 2010, I think), she may have been credited with the 3yrs of 'starting credits' even though she may have had no relationship with the UK in the tax years for which these credits apply (the years in which she turned 16, 17 and 18)! (NB such 'credited' years cannot count towards the 'paid 3+yrs of NI contributions' route to qualification; but seems more likely the 3+yrs of residency would be the route used in any case).

NI Manual on this here: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manual ... l/nim41210
Gov report on the change here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... hanges.pdf

Finally, there appear to be provisions to count 'partial' qualifying years in cases where someone made NI contributions in the UK then moved to another EEA country or Switzerland and made contributions there:

Usually, if you have not made UK National Insurance contributions for a full year then it will not count as a qualifying year.

However, partial years of making UK National Insurance contributions could count if:

* you made UK National Insurance contributions for part of a year
* you also made state pension contributions in that same year to any country in the EEA or Switzerland

The time spent paying UK National Insurance contributions will then be added onto your qualifying years when you make your claim.

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/li ... g-overseas

Apologies for the lengthy post; wishing you and your family all the best.