So my question is, can she continue to buy years GOING FORWARD, even though she is no longer in the UK? Or can one only buy back the 12 pension years?
Yes you can buy years going forward.
I get the impression that you have to be a UK resident, who is working in the EU, to avail of this, and not if you are an ROI resident. Am I correct?
When you say UK resident, I think you mean UK citizen.
But it doesn't matter anyway, it's not based on nationality. The eligibility criteria is that you lived and worked in the UK for three continuous years.
It's also not based on working in the EU; you can pay voluntary contributions from any country in the world.
The EU part of it would only come into consideration if your wife had worked less than 10 years in the UK and wasn't eligible for a UK state pension based on her UK contribution record alone and had to claim a pro-rota pension using her record in other EU states. Alas, this is not the case as your wife worked more than 10 years in Northern Ireland.
For example, I was told I could only buy back for 6 years previous.
Normally you can only buy back 6 years.
But with the 2016 pension reforms, the UK gave an extended period of time for people to top-up their contributions.
So one can top-up as far back as the 2006-07 tax year, and they have until April 2023 to do this (but cheaper if done before April 2019).
She asked us had we filled out a form CF83 or read the document NI38. We said that we hadn't. On looking at these forms, it looks to me that these forms are for UK residents, who are working abroad, who wish to keep their UK stamps up. That is not us. We are merely buying back 12 years, on top of the 14 years that my wife worked for when in Northern Ireland. Nothing more. We are Irish citizens. My wife is not going back to NI to work. She worked in NI from 1992 till 2002 as a teacher.
The application forms are necessary for them to know essential details such as your National Insurance number, employment details, address abroad etc.....
It's a slow process but that NI38 form is really the starting point.
We got advice on buying back years from a company in Offaly called USP Financial last year. He wrote to the UK Pension office on our behalf and they came back and told us how many pension years we had, and how many years we could buy back. He advised us to write to the Pension board, and send them a sterling draft explaining what it was for.
I wouldn't go through a third-party when dealing with a government institution as it will only cost you more time and money for the same outcome.
We'll fill in that form as you have recommended. The letter we got from the pension service said that the amount per year is only valid till 19th April 2019, and the offer is only good till 19th April 2023. I assume the contribution amount won't get that much higher after the first deadline. I think there is a budget coming up soon in the UK (God help us all, last thing they need given the Brexit fiasco)
Yep I would get that form filled in and go from there. It looks like you'll probably miss the April 2019 deadline though as it can take weeks/months to get an application approved.
