National Insurance Contributions

Yes, they are.

I'm being stopped about £40 a month from my state second pension, even though they can't tell me how to claim the private pension that they say I'm entitled to.

I guess they have to find the money from somewhere to pay to the worn bankers who have supported them all these years.

Did you receive this by letter, or in an email? If it was by email then it could be a phishing attempt. That last sentence isn't very good English, which makes it look suspicious.

Chris

It isn't very good arithmetic either, suggesting as it does that 39 is less than 30.

Genuine brown envelope from HMR&C, NI Contributions Office.

Made think that they had let the teaboy do the programming again.

Or maybe he had just been given three other persons jobs to do, been told that there will be no promotions for the next 5 years, that he is due to be made redundant within three years or his office is being closed and that 3 hours in each direction is reasonable daily travel, and by the way, he is only likely to get 1% payrises each year for the next three years.

Am I missing something - how would HMRC know how you would "claim" a private pension.

I received much the same letter (on paper, not email, and looked genuine to me).

What you've forgotten to mention is that the letter then goes on to say is that if you have ANY missing contributions then you may not qualify for the full bereavement allowances, so they give you the option of making up any shortfall if you want to protect the bereavement allowance.

Working out if it's worth making up the shortfall is proving somewhat difficult, but I'm inclining to think it's probably not worth doing.

David