Roy Ayers, the legendary jazz-funk vibraphonist and pioneer of the renowned song ‘Everybody Loves the Sunshine’, took his last breath on March 4, at the age of 84. His family confirmed on social media that he was battling a long time illness. Ayers, who was an original practitioner of hard bop, eased into the jazz […]
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
WORKERS can boost their state pension by £50,000 – but the deadline to do so is just one month away.
Savers can fill gaps in their National Insurance record to get the full state pension in later life.
Currently, individuals can buy missing NI years dating back to the 2006/7 financial year after the rules were changed in 2016.
However, this will change from April 6, limiting retrospective contributions to the past six tax years instead.
It means you have just a few weeks left to boost your state pension by a significant amount.
Those filling in NI years can increase their state pension by up to £113.76 a week, working out as an annual increase of £5,915.92.
Stacked up over 10 years, and you’re looking at a total pay boost of more than £50,000.
Bear in mind, as it stands you need 35 NI years to qualify for a full new state pension which is worth £221.20 a week.
However, you only need 10 years to get anything at all.
Jon Greer, head of retirement policy at Quilter, previously said: “Before making a payment, you should check your NI record using the ‘State Pension forecast’ on the gov.uk website to understand your current state pension entitlement.
“If you are not predicted to receive the full amount, you should investigate any potential gaps and fill them if you can.
“Not everyone will benefit from paying voluntary contributions, so it’s vital to also contact the Future Pension Centre on 0800 7310175.
“They can provide personalised advice on whether paying extra will increase your entitlement.
“It might be one of the most beneficial calls you make in planning for your retirement.”
The one-month warning comes after the government announced a major change to the NI topping up process.
As long as you have logged an inquiry with the Future Pension Centre by April 5, you can make payments after this deadline.
NATIONAL Insurance is a tax on your earnings, or profits if you're self-employed.
These contributions make you eligible for things like the state pension and certain benefits.
You’ll usually pay National Insurance Contributions (NICs) when you’re over the age of 16 and earning a certain amount.
For example, if you earn £1,000 a week, you pay nothing on the first £242.
Earn over that and you pay 10% on the next £725 – so £72.50. Then you pay 2% on the rest, so £33, which works out as 66p.
For the self-employed rates are slightly different.
NICs are usually taken automatically by your employer and paid to HMRC, so you don’t need to do anything.
You can see how much NICs you pay on your wage slip.
Anyone working for themselves usually has to pay NICs themselves when completing a self-assessment tax return.
The announcement from ministers came following a flurry of last-minute enquiries from people trying to beat the deadline to boost their retirement income.
In some cases, buying back missing years can be really valuable, but you’ll have to pay to fill them.
If you fill gaps between 2006/07 and 2015/16, you’ll pay the 2022/23 rates for contributions.
It is worth £15.85 a week, which means it costs £824.20 to buy one year of contributions.
As the state pension was £185.15 per week in 2022/23, this boost would add £5.29 per week or around £275 per year.
Although you’d have to pay £8,242 (10 lots of £824.20), the annual state pension boost would be around £2,750.
Someone who was retired for 20 years would get back around £55,000 in total (before tax).
Anyone under 73 can make voluntary pension contributions, as it’s assumed everyone under this age will claim the new state pension.
Find out how to pay for your contributions by visiting www.gov.uk/pay-voluntary-class-3-national-insurance.
Before making a voluntary contribution, it is important to check if the gaps in your contributions can be filled with free NI credits.
Thousands are thought to be missing out on these NI Credits, leaving them worse off in retirement.
For example, those on certain benefits should qualify for Class 1 credits.
This includes parents with active claims for child benefit.
You can check the full list of people eligible to claim credits by visiting www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility.
It explains the circumstances where you’ll need to claim and when you’ll get it automatically.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.
Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories
A PERVERTED woman has been caught filming sick sex tapes with her Great Dane – and admitted lusting over the pet.
Christina Stokes was arrested for allegedly having sex with an animal and posting clips of it on the internet.
She initially denied all the accusations and insisted he was not “f****** her dog”.
However, when cops quizzed her and asked if she was ever involved in any sexual activity with her pet, she said: “I can’t say an interest hadn’t been there.”
Christina is now under police custody and is facing several charges, Komo News reports.
An investigation into the case first kicked off when cops received a tip about vile videos of the woman with her dog making rounds on a pornographic website.
Investigators reviewed a 15-minute video that showed a woman, later identified by cops as Stokes, performing various sexual acts with what appeared to be a brown Great Dane wearing a blue collar.
Police later discovered an additional video featuring the woman and the dog on a different pornography website.
When cops arrived at her home after obtaining a search warrant, they found items that matched those seen in the videos.
Christina is currently in the Oklahoma County Jail and is awaiting a trial.
It comes just days after another sick woman admitted to filming 153 bestiality porn videos with her own pet dog.
Brennah Montgomery, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of bestiality as well as possession of a visual presentation depicting the sexual conduct of a child.
Police said five of the videos show her full or partial face, with some of the videos being duplicates.
She was released on June 1 last year after posting a $15,000 bond.
When interviewed by police, Montgomery admitted during her interview that she did engage in sexual activities but claimed she did not lock or force the dog into the acts.
Montgomery faces a maximum of seven years behind bars for both charges along with a $7,000 fine.
Additionally, the 31-year-old will be required to register as a sex offender.
She is due to be sentenced on May 12.
A MADCAP Putin MP has threatened to use dead Brits as “fertiliser” and “food for trench mice” in the latest deranged World War Three threat.
British, French and German soldiers have been warned they’ll face torturous deaths if they are sent as “peacekeepers” to end the war in Ukraine.
Leading Russian politician Rogozin mocked Sir Keir Starmer for attempting to be a “cool British prime minister” by looking to send troops.
He warned: “It has been a long time since we fertilised the Crimean vineyards with [the corpses of] British officers.
“We are waiting, Starmer, the time has come.”
“Don’t forget to give your Scot [soldiers] combat tartan skirts, so that our drones can easily fly in there and kick their spicy a****.
“Don’t ignore the glorious Irish with the blue plume on their hats, by which our snipers will be pleased to count them in the shabby Zaporizhzhia forest regiments.
“Don’t miss the moment to put grizzly fur hats on your brave English warriors, who are never dried out in your pubs.”
He also said the Western troops would be very useful in the Donetsk trenches for “feeding thousands of local mice” in the heinous threat.
Rogozin added: “Come on, Starmer, blow your bagpipes, blow to us, brave warrior of the crazy king.”
The mad Putin puppet, 61, was previously in charge of tests on Putin’s monster Satan-2 or Sarmat missile.
He now sits as a senator in the Russian parliament for an invaded region of Ukraine.
Meanwhile Russian army Major-General Apti Alaudinov, 51, has defied US President Donald Trump’s claim that Putin wants peace.
He made a chilling declaration that Moscow should be ready for full-scale mobilisation to field a military machine of two million soldiers to crush any attempt to put NATO member troops on Ukrainian soil.
He added that Europe and Nato would then be “ceasing to exist”.
Alaudinov said: “We’re ready to eat grass, drink from puddles, but we will fight to the end,” he said.
“No matter what happens, no matter how things play out, Russia will win this war.
“No doubt about it.
“Right now, we’re at a point where either NATO falls apart, and we go on to finish off Europe…
“Or they stop bluffing, back down, and agree to whatever conditions are needed just to make peace with us.
“Either way, as a country, we have every chance of defeating a united Europe.
“But we are the most experienced military force in the world, and we are more prepared for modern warfare than anyone else.”
They could gather a peacekeeping force, but the West was running out of weapons, he said.
Moscow is vehemently opposed to the “boots on the ground” proposals of Starmer and Macron as part of a peace deal to offer security to Ukraine against another Putin invasion.
KEITH Wood’s son is a chip off the old block in many ways – though he’s far from a hard-nosed hooker like his dad was.
Tom Wood has been named to start at fly-half for Ireland’s Under 20s versus France on Friday evening.
News of Wood junior’s big day was warmly greeted by Irish rugby supporters, however, plenty joked around about the altogether different position he plays from his father.
One person tweeted: “The apple falls far from the tree.
“From perhaps the greatest hooker, ever, to an out-half, no matter how good, is a sad devolution indeed.”
Among the replies though, Ian Lazenby fired back: “Woody was an out half in a hooker’s body (laughing emoji).”
This year’s competition has been more of a struggle for Ireland’s next generation than fans have become accustomed to.
They sit fourth in the table with one win to two defeats.
England are on course for a Grand Slam having battered Neil Doak’s group 19-3 in the opener.
Saturday’s main event meeting at the Aviva Stadium could at least see Simon Easterby’s older charges maintain their path towards a Grand Slam.
There’ll be additional weight around the titanic match-up as it’ll serve as a final farewell in front of an Ireland home crowd for Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony and Cian Healy.
On Wednesday the Munster scrum-half detailed his outlook going into such a momentous occasion for him and his two fellow veterans.
He said: “It will be emotional and my genuine overriding feeling is happiness and gratitude.
‘I’m not just throwing those words out there. I’ve played for Ireland a good few times and been very lucky.
“Yeah, when the anthems are on and things like that, you’ll get a bit emotional but it would be different if it was a dead rubber.
“This is France at home and we’re in a good position.”
The 35-year-old, who will continue his club career abroad next season, insisted he won’t allow himself to get too emotional in order to maintain a grip on his performance level if he does get on.
He added: “It’s going to be a hell of a Test match and getting too emotional, you’ll just get in your own way and it will be too much.
“I don’t think there’s any message needed for the fans for this one.It is such a big game and everyone knows what’s riding on it.
“I don’t think the kick-off time has any bearing on the atmosphere. You know by the end of the warm-up what the vibe will be like.
“That’s part of the connection the fans over the years. They know their rugby well.
“They know how much is on the line and it will be hopping. It will be right up there.”
A MUM who lost her son is a horror car crash eight years ago has opened up on the pain she felt after the tragedy, saying “no family should have to endure this”.
Sharon Cleary has spoken of her son’s death as part of a new RSA campaign highlighting speeding on rural roads.
The campaign is supported by bereaved families and focuses on how small increases in speed can have tragic consequences.
It includes a new advert and comes as the speed limit on rural roads has been reduced from 80km/h to 60km/h.
Sharon’s son Adam Case was a back seat passenger in a car his friend was driving when the driver lost control and hit a tree.
The incident occurred just three miles from his home in Co Tipperary in 2017.
Devastated Sharon said: “Adam was a kind, fun-loving teenager who had his whole life ahead of him.
“He had no chance of survival when the driver lost control of the car.
“No family should have to endure this heartbreak.
“This powerful campaign is so important—anything that helps prevent another tragedy like this is absolutely necessary.”
Another heartbroken family member, June McArdle, told of how her dad, motorcyclist Christopher Fitzgerald, was killed on a rural road.
In 2018, hit head-on by a car that had drifted onto the other side of the road.
June said: “The tragic irony is that my dad was an incredibly careful and responsible driver—he always said his own driving wouldn’t kill him, but someone else’s could.
“He was hit head-on by a car that drifted into his path and, in an instant, he was gone.
“It was just 11 weeks before my wedding, and he had been on his way home after dropping off my wedding invitations.
“This campaign is so important because no family should have to endure this kind of heartbreak.
“We all have a responsibility to drive safely—not just for ourselves, but for everyone on the road.”
Sarah O’Connor, Director of Partnerships & External Affairs at the Road Safety Authority, said: “Too many lives are lost because drivers become too comfortable on familiar roads, unconsciously creeping up their speed without realising the deadly consequences.
“This campaign is a wake-up call—because even a small increase in speed can have the serious and tragic results.”
And Minister for Transport, Darragh O’Brien said: “Our priority is to protect all road users and make Ireland’s road network safer.
“A speed limit is not a target to be reached or exceeded—it’s there to save lives.
“The RSA’s advertising campaign shows us the impact speed can have and why it’s vital to watch your speed every time you take to the road.
“I would also encourage people to speak to their family about their driving habits – remind them that slowing down saves lives and helps keep everyone on the road safe.”
