National Insurance Credits for people on ESA.

Hello,

On Saturday I decided to check my pension contributions using the new automated service on the Government website. I was shocked to see that for each of the years that I have been on ESA I have only been given 35 weeks worth of credit not 52 so those years don't seem to have counted towards my pension! I am currently in the process of checking this with HM Revenue and Customs. The person I spoke to today didn't seem to think this should be the case. However I was just wondering if anyone on here knows if this is a general rule affecting everyone on ESA? I have looked and looked on the internet and can't find anywhere that it says it is. Even all the sections on the .Gov website regarding NI credits don't make any mention of this just that people on ESA are credited automatically.

Thanks Gordon. I realise what you say about tax years but I have been receiving ESA continuously since December 2011 and my ESA started the day after my Incapacity Benefit ended. I received that continuously for many years before that. So no breaks between or within claims. I received full year NI credits for every year I was on Incapacity benefit up until 2011-12 which is when I went onto ESA. I suppose I will just have to wait and see what the tell me when I talk to a case worker at Revenue and Customs tomorrow or the day after. I will try and tell you how that goes.

All the Very Best
Lesley

Looking forward to hearing the explanation because I noticed that when I did my check, expecting to see 34 years completed plus some 6 months extra, I was at 33 years which is exactly the same as I was 18 months ago when I got an update letter suggesting I bump it up by paying in to increase to 35. 14 months on ESA. Seems a bit odd.

Hello,

I can now give you an update. I rang revenue and Customs this morning and was told I would have to ring ESA peeps as they are responsible for letting R and C know about credits. When I rang them I was told that everyone on ESA gets credits so not to worry about it. The lady said that they only notify R and C about credits either when your claim stops or you retire!

This didn't seem right to me so I rang Revenue and Customs again to tell them what I had been told. The lovely lady there was rather shocked too and suggested that I ring DWP again (if I hear Vivaldi again I will scream) and ask to speak to a manager. This I did and they sent a note to a manager at the office that deals with my claim to ring me within the next 3 hours.

He did ring me and said that I hadn't been credited since changing over to ESA from Incapacity Benefit (2011-12) due to a glitch in the system. He has now sorted it out and the wrong info. about my claim ending too. I have since rung R and C and the credits have now appeared on their system-Hooray.

They have suggested that I ring them again next week just to check that the pension contribution side has been updated too. Sorry this is so long winded but I thought it might be helpful to other people who spot anomalies in their records too. All the Very Best Lesley.