Pay voluntary Class 3 National Insurance
Set up regular payments
If you know you’ll have gaps in your National Insurance record in the current tax year, you can make regular payments to cover the shortfall.
You can either:
- pay by monthly Direct Debit
- make quarterly payments (every 3 months)
Pay by monthly Direct Debit
You can only use Direct Debit to pay voluntary Class 3 National Insurance contributions for the current tax year (6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025) and future tax years.
To set up monthly payments, download and send the regular payments application form (CA5603) to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The address is on the 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’.
Your payments will usually start in May. You can pay arrears for the current tax year through your first payment if you set up the Direct Debit after May.
If you’ve not used your Direct Debit for 2 years or more, check with your bank that it is still set up.
Stopping your Direct Debit payments
You can cancel your Direct Debit at any time.
HMRC will stop collecting payments when either you:
- are old enough to get your State Pension
- have paid the maximum allowable amount of voluntary contributions
Make quarterly payments
If you want to pay quarterly, you can:
- use the regular payments application form (CA5603), select quarterly payments, then post it to the address on the form
- phone HMRC and say you want to make quarterly payments
HMRC will send you a payment request every July, October, January and April.
Stopping your quarterly payments
You can contact HMRC and ask them to stop your payments at any time.
HMRC will stop sending payment requests when you are old enough to get State Pension.
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.