NIM25007 - Class 3 NICs: Restrictions on the right to pay: precluded Class 3 NICs: entitlement to credited NICs

Regulation 49(1)(a) and (2) Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001

As explained in NIM25001, a person is not entitled to pay (ie, is precluded from paying) Class 3 NICs in certain circumstances. Subject to the qualification in NIM25011, one of those is that they cannot pay for a tax year if, but for the payment of such NICs, they would be entitled to be credited with NICs.

Example

Mr Y is a 59 year old man. He will be age 60 on 7th April 2000. He is unemployed and living on savings. Having got a pension forecast several years ago, he knows that he will not get a 100% State Pension. Although that has not really bothered him too much in the past, he decides anyway to increase his rate of pension by paying 52 Class 3 NICs for the 2000/01 tax year.

As it turns out, Y is entitled to autocredits for the 2000/01 tax year. As the Class 3 NICs are not required for the purposes specified in regulation 49(2) (see NIM25010), he has become precluded from paying them under regulation 49(1)(a).

For details of the other circumstances in which a person is precluded from paying Class 3 NICs, see NIM25006 and NIM25008 –NIM25107.