NI Contributions

Has anyone else had a letter from the dear old NI people saying they've
underpaid their NI for 2004/5?

I've just had one and I do not understand how on earth I can have
underpaid given that my employment status has not changed nor has my
employer. I'm also mildly bemused that it takes the great cogs of the
state machine nearly two financial years to bother to tell me.

I have a vague recollection of a news article saying there'd been a
cock-up with NI calculations but I may be misremembering.

 

Yes, I've had one. As I was idling away at Uni it is correct. They have
invited me to send a cheque for 371 quid to Gordon Brown.

However, I won't be coughing up anything. The attached documentation giving
information about pending legislation was interesting. Should the
legislation be enacted then I don't think missing a few years contributions
will matter. Apparently I have until 2011 to make up any shortfall so I'll
review the situation sometime....

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Paul Corfield

There has been a cock-up.

Current advice is that there's no rush (you've got several years) to
make up any underpayments (assuming there have been some), so do nothing
at present.

The Powers That Be will sort it out, apparently. Always assuming they
don't collide with a squadron of pigs at 35,000 feet.

--
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Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

This seems to be mainly a bit of an LU related thing. I've had a few
messages on my Staff Group about this and the general consensus is that
NI have fucked up and all will be well if you just ignore it.

If you do contact them, I'm told that you will be advised to ignore it
for a little while and everything will catch up. It's a known problem.

 

I had one in December, and I've only just had the letter telling me it
was all a big mistake

 

i've had 2 or 3 of those things so far, all for different dates, i've been
on the sick/disability for the past 11 years, so each time i wrote back
telling htem this, got a letter back saying they were sorry they cocked up
and i shouldent have had the letter in the first place.

last one i got said if i didnt pay up, my pension will be reduced by 12p a
week at current prices, i don't plan to live long enough to get a pension,
but if i did i doubt there'd be any state pension to have in 35 years time
anyway, so now i just ignore the damn things.

I wonder if they send the money back with a letter saying they cocked up to
those who shit them selves over it and paid up, as it seems everyone who
writes to them and queeries it gets told it was a cock up and to ignore it.

 

This is my nomination for typo of the week.

 

I got one saying they thought I might have overpaid NI and could be
entitled to a refund.

Being very wary of anything from HMRC, I checked it with TaxCalc and
it reckoned I paid just the right amount, so I ignored the letter.

HVB

 

No, but I had one years ago stating that I'd underpaid in 1996-
1998 IIRC. Which amused me, as I didn't come to the UK until 2000...

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
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