A widower's claim under the Social Security (Contributions) Regs 2001, Reg 52, to recover Class 3 NICs paid by his late wife has been dismissed by the FTT: Garwood v HMRC [2023] UKFTT 75 (TC). Voluntary contributions to top up state pension of £2,236 were paid by Mrs Garwood to HMRC on 8 March 2019 and she reached state pension age on 6 January 2020. She died of cancer on 15 January 2020. The FTT held that for a payment to have been made in "error" there had to have been a mistake and there was no error or mistake.

It is easy to have every sympathy with Mr Garwood. My own mother died in March 2009, two months after her state pension age (60), having made years of NICs. Life is terribly unfair and perhaps the Regs are too...