Client has been refused IB as he had not made sufficient NI contributions.These would seem to be a mixture of Class 1 ,Class 2 and lack of credits following an earlier failed PCA.
The handbook says a claimant can get IB if they make up the missing contributions but cannot make the claim until six weeks after the NI payments were made. The client has offered to make up the missing NI but was apparently told by DWP that this still wouldn't entitle him to IB. As far as I know there is no doubt about his incapacity for work, the refusal is only on grounds of insufficient NI contributions. Any ideas about who is right would be gratefully recieved.

The only contributions your client can make up are Class 2, form a time he was liable to pay them, or Class 3. He can't make up Class 1 as by definition they are only paid while he is employed, and he can't get incapacity credits unless he was in law incapble of work at the time.

Class 3 voluntary contributions are only any good for pensions - they will not help at all. If there is a period when he could have paid class 2 and didn't, and it they are now being paid after the end of the preceding benefit year to the claim, then yes, they do not count for the first 6 weeks after they are paid. But if that still dos not bring him up to the total value of contributions needed for the incredibly complicated contribution conditions, then I'm afraid he's sunk. While Class 1 contributions may easily produce an earnings fact much higher than the flat rate for the weeks they represent, there is no such elasticity in class 2 and credits, which are flat-rate. So if you only have 48 credits in a year, you can't use that as a year that needs an earnings factor of 50 times the LEL.

Thanks for that, I just couldn't get it straight in my head