Don't forget to backpay your british social pension for gap years in your record! The special extended historical window is now extended to closes April 5th 2025

Financial Frolickers with their affairs in order already know that the british government, as part of a grandfathering concession related to a revamp of the state pension system in the mid 2010s, has offered a special window for gap years in your social pension record to be filled going as far back as 2006 instead of the usual 6 year limit (eg 2017). The british state pension, purchased remotely via class 3 NIC voluntary contributions, as they are classified, is an absolute bargain at 825gbp per year of record. It is a particular bargain investment with inflation at high levels currently since it is indexed.

Knowledgeable frolickers are busy back-franking their record to make sure they get all their possible years of record under such generous rules. I recently gained the knowledge, while chasing whitehall telephone operators yet again to process my CF38 form, that the deadline for this special originally set by legislation at 5th April 2023, then tactically extended to 31st July 2023, is now extended until 5th April 2025. As late as 2025 you will be able to buy years of record for the years 2006-2023. Here is the media release. It happened today. The rest of the good news is that the cost per year is fixed at the 2023 level.

I want to highlight that 2006-2023 is 17 years of additional record that can be purchased for the next 2 years, whereas generally only the last 6 years in arrears can be back-franked. Get it done frolickers! For frolickers that have been out of blighty for many years, or not in the workforce, that purchase of 17 years of gap years is worth close to 5 300gbp pa indexed forward for inflation every year of your retirement for 14 000gbp invested today. That is extremely smart value investing, if you believe like i do, that we will not be at the 2% inflation target for at least 4-5 years and possibly a decade, and that further inflationary outbreaks are likely over the next 15-20 years particularly.

Big hint frolickers, there is some trained thoughtful expertise in that suggestion.

We printed a lot of money and debt with fiscal and monetary cannons over 30 years, and we have two generations of adults who are going to have a much higher propensity to leave western countries for early retirements in cheaper countries because of the total fiasco ponzi scheme in housing run for generation baby boomer, not to mention bombed out no-tenure labor markets and mass migration displacing local skilled workers.

Nobody is going to work in their 50s and 60s to pay a rent coupon to a boomer in a no-tenure labor gig. There is a hard demographic diaspora limit on that ponzi scheme and labor markets management model, and it is arriving now. That is going to keep labor markets tight for a long time, particularly at the senior experienced professional end. The wage side of the inflation spiral is locked in.

Personally i think the very parlous fiscal situation of the UK means a review to national insurance is very likely. The catastrophic reality of the NHS both on funding and on service levels make that even more likely. The current bargain reality is probably not long for this world, but once your years are franked - they are franked.

To get your back record filled you need to fill in Form CF38 and get it mailed off to whitehall. After you have thus been registered as a foreign beneficiary, you can organise payments on your back record. To check your full record you can use the british Government Gateway services online to view a report showing any year gaps in your record.

I am including a link that will enable you to check your national insurance record via a UK Governmant Gateway. You will need an authenticator app (like Google Authenticate), your passport, and your personal details like birthdate and national insurance number, to follow these steps. This will give you an online printable record of any years you are missing and how many years are on your record.

I am also including a link to form CF38. Please read the instructions carefully. Please be aware the form is on an odd paper size and it may be best to print it to file before printing it to a less arcane paper size that you actually have in your paper tray. You may end up only filling out 70% of the form otherwise. Whitehall at its endless helpful best!