NIM25015 - Class 3 NICs: Restrictions on the right to pay: precluded Class 3 NICs: qualification to circumstances in NIM25014: female to male transsexual issued with a full gender recognition certificate

Regulation 49(2A), (2B) and (2C) Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001

Section 126 of, and Part 1 of Schedule 4 to, Pensions Act 1995

Article 123 of, and Part 1 of Schedule 2 to, Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995

explains that a person is precluded from paying Class 3 NICs for:

• the tax year in which they reach state pension age; and
• any subsequent tax year.

But that preclusion is subject to the following qualification.

From 6th April 2005, a person may still pay if:

• they are age 60 or over; and
• they have a full gender recognition certificate (“GRC”)* issued under the Gender Recognition Act 2004; and
• their acquired gender is male.

Where someone satisfies those conditions, they are not precluded from paying Class 3 NICs for:

• the tax year in which they reached age 60;
• any subsequent tax year before the one in which the full GRC is issued; and
• the tax year in which the full GRC is issued.

Example

A transsexual man was born on 21st May 1945. He is aged 62 when he gets his full GRC in June 2007 (ie, in the 2007/08 tax year).

If he needs to do so, he is entitled to pay Class 3 NICs for:

• the tax year in which he reached age 60 ie, the 2005/06 tax year; and
• a year after the one in which he was age 60 but before the one in which the full GRC was issued ie, the 2006/07 tax year; and
• the tax year in which the full GRC was issued ie, the 2007/08 tax year.

For details of:

• the rate of Class 3 NICs payable in respect of:

• the tax year in which the full GRC is issued; or
• the following tax year,

see NIM25029.

• the other circumstances in which a person is precluded from paying Class 3 NICs, see NIM25006 – NIM25013 and NIM25015 – NIM25017.

* The Gender Recognition Act 2004 provides for the issue of two types of GRC: interim or full. It is only the latter that is relevant for the purposes of the above.