Voluntarily overpaid

Class 3 National Insurance contributions can be paid voluntarily by a contributor to boost his entitlement to certain state benefits.

In May 2006 a white paper Security in retirement: towards a new pensions regime was published which included the proposal that the number of qualifying years to earn a full basic state pension be reduced from 39 years (for women) and 44 years (for men) to 30 years with effect from April 2010. This was enacted in Pensions Act 2007 s 1(3).

A case came before the First-tier Tribunal concerning 13 individuals who made Class 3 contributions unnecessarily. They already had 30 qualifying years each and so they applied to have the excess contributions refunded.

Eleven of the appeals fell into category 1. That is the Class 3 payments were made before the publication of the white paper.

One appeal...