Navin Joshi v The Commissioners for HMRC

Late voluntary Class 2 National Insurance contributions paid within the applicable six-year period are treated, for benefit entitlement, as paid on the actual payment date. They do not retrospectively establish entitlement from pensionable age for a person who lacked the required qualifying years at that date.

Under Social Security (Crediting and Treatment of Contributions, and National Insurance Numbers) Regulations 2001, regulation 6(1), HMRC may direct that a contribution be treated as paid on an earlier day which the officer considers appropriate. The discretion does not require HMRC to select pensionable age. For Class 2 contributions, the defined due date is not the date on which a person reaches pensionable age.

Navin Joshi had insufficient qualifying years for a United Kingdom State pension when he reached pensionable age on 23 January 2017. He later made voluntary Class 2 National Insurance contributions to remedy the shortfall.

The Department for Work and Pensions treated entitlement as beginning on 18 April 2018, the payment date. HMRC exercised its discretion under regulation 6(1) of the Social Security (Crediting and Treatment of Contributions, and National Insurance Numbers) Regulations 2001 to treat the contribution as paid on 15 May 2017. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed Mr Joshi’s appeal against that decision in a decision released on 23 October 2023.

On appeal, he contended that the payment should instead be treated as effective from his pensionable age.

1. Appeal dismissed. The First-tier Tribunal had correctly construed and applied the relevant regulations.
2. Under regulation 4(3)(b), a voluntary Class 2 contribution paid within the sixth-year period is treated as paid on the date of payment. Regulation 4(7) then treats it as not paid for entitlement before that date and as paid from that date. Since the appellant did not have the statutory minimum qualifying years at pensionable age, his entitlement would ordinarily have begun on 18 April 2018.
3. Regulation 6(1) confers a discretion on HMRC, where its conditions are met, to direct that the contribution be treated as paid on an earlier day considered appropriate in the circumstances. It does not require the contribution to be treated as paid from pensionable age. HMRC’s choice of 15 May 2017, the initially completed date on the relevant form, was reasonable and arguably generous.
4. The appellant’s reliance on the expression due date was misconceived. For a Class 2 contribution which a person is entitled, but not liable, to pay, regulation 1(2) defines that date as 31 January following the end of the relevant year. It does not mean the date on which pensionable age is reached.

• Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber): dismissed the appeal and upheld the First-tier Tribunal’s conclusion that HMRC could treat the contribution as paid from 15 May 2017, but not from pensionable age.
• First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber): in a decision released on 23 October 2023, dismissed the appeal against HMRC’s exercise of discretion under regulation 6(1) of the Social Security (Crediting and Treatment of Contributions, and National Insurance Numbers) Regulations 2001.