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NIM25015 | Class 3 NICs: Restrictions on the right to pay: precluded Class 3 NICs: qualification to circumstances in NIM25014: female to male transsexual issued with a full gender recognition certificate

From HM Revenue & Customs · National Insurance Manual

Regulation 49(2A), (2B) and (2C) Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001

Section 126 of, and Part 1 of Schedule 4 to, Pensions Act 1995

Article 123 of, and Part 1 of Schedule 2 to, Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995

NIM25014 explains that a person is precluded from paying Class 3 NICs for:

  • the tax year in which they reach state pension age; and

  • any subsequent tax year.

But that preclusion is subject to the following qualification.

From 6th April 2005, a person may still pay if:

  • they are age 60 or over; and

  • they have a full gender recognition certificate (“GRC”)* issued under the Gender Recognition Act 2004; and

  • their acquired gender is male.

Where someone satisfies those conditions, they are not precluded from paying Class 3 NICs for:

  • the tax year in which they reached age 60;

  • any subsequent tax year before the one in which the full GRC is issued; and

  • the tax year in which the full GRC is issued.

The above guidance assumed a woman’s pension age to be 60. Since April 2010 several changes to State Pension age have been made for both men and women. To check how the above would apply to a customer after April 2010 you would need to check their State Pension age using the calculator on GOV.UK and apply that age instead of 60 to the guidance above.

Example

A transsexual man was born on 21 May 1945. He is aged 62 when he gets his full GRC in June 2007 (i.e. in the 2007-08 tax year).

If he needs to do so, he is entitled to pay Class 3 NICs for:

  • the tax year in which he reached age 60 i.e. the 2005-06 tax year; and

  • a year after the one in which he was age 60 but before the one in which the full GRC was issued i.e. the 2006-07 tax year; and

  • the tax year in which the full GRC was issued i.e. the 2007-08 tax year.

For details of:

  • the rate of Class 3 NICs payable in respect of:

  • the tax year in which the full GRC is issued; or

  • the following tax year,

* The Gender Recognition Act 2004 provides for the issue of two types of GRC: interim or full. It is only the latter that is relevant for the purposes of the above.