Giving up work and NI issues

[Steviesam]

So my wife is giving up work.

What, if anything, do we need to do about national insurance?

[iambeowulf]

Was she self employed and does she have an accountant?
How old is she and how long has she been working?

If she's near the 30 year NI threshold then just stop paying. If she's PAYE and if she wants to keep paying then she can do voluntary contributions. Class 2 I think.

I'm not really qualified but it's what I've read as I'm in a similar situation.

[Steviesam]

She was employed until last week and has been employed for approx 20 years since having children, and a couple of years before that.

[grumpy52]

She can pay self employed NI it's not much per month , it's what my old man did when he got fed up of the muppets at jsa when he retired from the RAF years ago .

[ianrb]

The number of years NI contributions to qualify for a full pension is going up from 30 to 35 years. The cut off for this is people born after Jan 1951 (I think). It may be worth checking on that before making any hard and fast decision.

[Eric Mc]

You should only pay "Self Employed" NI if you are Self Employed.

At the moment, Self Employed individuals pay Class 4 NI as a percentage of their trading profits and Class 2 NI as a fixed weekly amount (although it is collected monthly by Direct Debit). Class 2 in this form is to be abolished and rolled into the annual Class 4 NI payment (which is collected through the Self Assessment system).

Voluntary contributions are paid under Class 3 NI.

[elanfan]

I'm pretty certain your mrs will get years made up for whilst she was bringing up the children and therefore it's very likely that she is fully paid up. Ring your local helpline to check.