Paying voluntary National Insurance contributions if you’ve worked or lived abroad
Set up a Direct Debit
If you know you’ll have gaps in your National Insurance record in the current tax year, you can make regular payments to fill the gaps.
Pay by Direct Debit
You can use Direct Debit to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions for the current tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027) and future tax years.
To set up Direct Debit payments, complete the relevant section on the application form.
Allow 21 days to set up a new Direct Debit.
HMRC will send you a letter telling you when payments will be taken and how much they will be.
Payments appear on your statement as ‘HMRC NI-DD’.
Stopping your Direct Debit payments
You can cancel your Direct Debit at any time.
HMRC will automatically stop collecting payments when either:
- you’re old enough to get your State Pension
- you’ve paid the maximum allowable amount of voluntary contributions
After you’ve paid
Your National Insurance record and personal tax account will be updated after HMRC gets the payment. This can take up to 8 weeks.