UK national insurance for expats

Should you make voluntary national insurance contributions?

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If you are living overseas and wish to continue building your entitlement to the UK state pension, you will need to make voluntary national insurance contributions.



To form any entitlement to the state pension, you must have at least 10 years worth of qualifying contributions. To form full entitlement to the state pension, you must have at least 35 years worth of qualifying contributions.



At the date of writing, the full state pension is £203.85 per week. Therefore, if you accrue 35 qualifying years, you’ll be entitled to £203.85 per week once your reach retirement age whereas if you accrue 10-34 qualifying years, you’ll be entitled to a proportion of £203. per week. For example, if you have 20 qualifying years, you’ll be entitled to £116.48 per week which is £203.85 x 20/35.



You can check your national insurance record here i.e. check the number of qualifying years you’ve accrued and you can check your state pension age here i.e. the earliest age you can begin to receive your state pension.

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Are you eligible to make voluntary national insurance contributions?

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Providing that you have either lived in the UK at any time for at least three continuous years or made 3 years worth of qualifying contributions, you will be entitled to make voluntary contributions. To be eligible to pay Class 2 i.e. the lower rate, you must have worked in the UK prior to moving overseas.

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Where can you apply to make voluntary contributions?

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You can complete and post Form CF83 here and HMRC will reach out to you to confirm the type of voluntary contribution (Class 2 or Class 3) you can make including direct debit instructions to settle the payments.



If you intend to pay Class 2 (the lower rate), in addition to Form CF83, you should include a summary of your employment and/or self-employment prior to leaving the UK and your current employment and/or self-employment position abroad.

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Can you backdate national insurance contributions?

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You can notify HMRC that you wish to backdate contributions via the CF83 form and you are able to backdate voluntary contributions up to 6 years.