This Sunday is the deadline for the option enabling workers to top up their UK pension on the cheap.
It means people who worked in the UK for three years can cheaply improve their state pension to bring them up to 10 years of cover, the minimum to qualify for a UK state pension.
People need to apply by tomorrow because the UK tax body, HMRC, will be closed over the weekend.
More than 250,000 Irish people are thought to be eligible for the pension top-up and thousands are already understood to have applied.
Some of these were able to buy back up to 18 years of pension contributions, before that 18-year option was shut off.
Financial experts said many people eligible to buy back years were only now applying for it.
Irish people who worked in the UK for just a few years can now top up as many as 10 years of their British state pension.
After Sunday, the British government will close a loophole that allows people with fewer than 10 years of contributions to boost their state pension entitlement at a lower rate.
The opportunity to top up a UK pension has been described as ‘an insanely generous’ concession by experts
From then, it will be five times more expensive for people living outside the UK to top up their UK state pension, even if they worked there for more than a decade.
Hundreds of thousands of Irish people worked in the UK and paid the equivalent of our social insurance there, giving them access to a pension. It is called national insurance (NI) in the UK.
The opportunity to top up a UK pension has been described as “an insanely generous” concession by experts.
Currently, individuals living outside the UK who worked there for between one and 10 years can increase their UK pension entitlement by paying voluntary national insurance contributions at the cheap Class 2 rate.
After April 5, only people who worked in the UK for 10-plus years will be eligible to get or top up a UK state pension, according to XtraPension operations director John Ring.
Former UK workers can secure a UK pension that is paid from age 67, with no impact on their other pensions.
From Monday, it will be more expensive for Irish people to buy additional national insurance.
Until the deadline, people who worked in the UK and who are still working can buy Class 2 national insurance contributions, which cost £182 (€209) for every year they are buying.
Others have to pay £907.40 (€1,042) for Class 3 contributions. From Monday, Irish people and other nationalities will be able to buy only Class 3 contributions.