Afternoon Board,

A few questions for the members:

My Mrs has been in the UK for a while now and its about time I sorted a few things out regards pensions. She basically hasn't paid any kind of NI contributions, is 38 and I want to sort that out.

Can we make voluntary class 3 contributions and if so, how? Also, she wants to start working part time soon and when she does, will NI contributions count towards a pension? Would then need to be topped up?

Finally, she will go for citizenship in a couple of years or so, then we intend to leave the UK once she has the passport, probably for good. If we do that, can she, as a naturalised British citizen, continue to make voluntary NI C3 payments (as I intend to) and still get a pension when she reaches pensionable age (whatever that may be) and claim the pension from Thailand?

Thanks ahead of time.

a few simple answers, but suggest you visit www.pensionsservice.gov.uk for more details

firstly, your wife will qualify for a pension as your wife, this will be the spouse addition, not the same as a single person who earns a pension through 30 years of contributions

your wife may can qualify for a full single person's pension by paying voluntary contributions only if you fulfill certain conditions before leaving UK, but this may not be worthwhile in your case

any pension awarded is payable no matter where you live, but in the case of Thailand payments are frozen, i.e. no annual increases

Thanks