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National Insurance contributions up to State Pension age

If you work - either as an employee or self-employed - and your earnings are over a certain level you pay NICs. You pay them from age 16 until you reach State Pension age. This is 65 for men and 60 for women born on or before 5 April 1950 - but it will gradually increase to 65 for women over the period from 2010 to 2020.

If you're employed you pay Class 1 NICs as a percentage of your earnings. If you're self-employed you pay Class 2 at a flat weekly rate and Class 4 NICs annually, as a percentage of your taxable profits.

• More about National Insurance
• Changes to the State Pension age

What happens at State Pension age?

Once you're over State Pension age you don't have to pay Class 1 or Class 2 NICs if you carry on working. You'll only have to pay them on any earnings that were due to be paid to you before you reached State Pension age. However, if you're self-employed, because Class 4 NICs are an annual charge, you may still have to pay them on any taxable profits for the year in which you reach State Pension age. You will be exempt from payment from the beginning of the following tax year.

Applying for an Age Exception Certificate if you continue working

If you stay in employment or self-employment after State Pension age you can apply to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for an Age Exception Certificate so that you don't pay NICs. You can write to:

HM Revenue & Customs
National Insurance Contributions Office
Evening Work Centre
Benton Park View
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE98 1ZZ

Make sure you provide your name, address, contact number and your National Insurance number. Once you receive your certificate from HMRC give it to your employer. This will allow them to stop deducting NICs from your earnings. Alternatively, you can show your birth certificate or passport as evidence that you have reached State Pension age.
 
If you're self-employed and have reached State Pension age you can stop making NICs payments (though Class 4 may be due on your taxable profits in the year during which you reach State Pension age, as described earlier). The Age Exception Certificate, though not required if you're self-employed, will provide useful evidence of your age should you be asked.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) includes information on Age Exception in the pack they issue to people approaching State Pension age. DWP can also issue Age Exception Certificates and they are sometimes in paper format rather than card, but are equally acceptable for proof of age.

• Tax if you're employed and getting a pension
• Tax if you're self-employed and getting a pension

If you think you've overpaid NICs

You might find you've overpaid NICs in certain circumstances. For example:

• you carried on working after State Pension age and your employer continued to deduct Class 1 NICs 
• you paid Class 4 NICs on profits from self-employment in respect of a tax year after the one in which you reached State Pension age 
• you paid Class 2 NICs as a self-employed person when your earnings were below the Small Earnings Exception (SEE) limit

If you think you may have overpaid follow the link below which gives details on how to claim back overpaid NICs.
 

• Claiming back overpaid National Insurance contributions

Useful links

• Making sure you've stopped paying National Insurance
• Help if you have little or no pension
• Retirement checklist: who to notify, when and why
• How much income will you have in retirement?
• Do you need to top up your National Insurance contributions?