No, you must have a full National Insurance Number (NINO) before applying to pay any voluntary contributions.
Temporary Number Background
Many people who worked in the UK in the past were issued with a Temporary National Insurance Number (NINO) by their employer.
This was usually a ‘quick fix’ to ensure you were paid on time and was not a ‘real’ NINO.
Some people worked for many years in the UK on this basis which was clearly an oversight by the employer(s) who would still have been paying National Insurance for you.
A small number of applications we are sending now for clients to allow them pay voluntary National Insurance contributions are somehow being accepted with just the client’s Temporary NINO.
The vast majority however are not.
You must now register via post for a full NINO to be able to maximise your UK State Pension – even though you last worked in the UK many years ago and probably do not have a current UK address.
Once done, please allow 8 weeks for them to revert to you assuming they can find you.
Only then can we apply in the normal way to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions in order to maximise your UK State Pension.
We recommend you make a copy of everything for your records so you can resend everything again to HMRC in 10 weeks in case you don’t hear back from them.
