To ask you to explain this to me in simple terms (children benefit related - yawn, I know)

[SeeYouWhenISeeYou]

NC for this.

I have been a stay at home mum since I had my first child 9 years ago now. My youngest is 5 years old. My DP of 15 years and father of both my children earns more than 60K so we will not be receiving child benefit anymore.

My question is, what, if anything, do I need to do now to ensure that my state pension is protected? At the moment I have contributed for 23 years.

1. Do nothing, continue getting payments, and then return the money vis my DP's tax return?

1. Opt out, which I need to do by the end of Sunday. If I go for this option, where does this leave me? How does one opt out anyway?

What option should I go for? Is there anything I haven't considered?

Not sure it's linked to pension? Seems easiest just to opt out.

On the letter we had it implied that you could opt out without losing your pension contributions. But I'm not sure how.

And I have seen posts on Mn urging people NOT to opt out because of the potential effect on your pension.

So I can't give you an answer, but I think you are right to ask the question and get a clear answer.

I would say call the DWP and ask them, but I imagine they are now closed until Monday

Prob not linked to pension at all, you're right. It's just that my understanding is that for as long as I continue being a stay at home parent, my pension is protected, i.e. is being 'fed', and it will continue being so until my youngest child reaches the age of 12. Oh I don't know, I'm getting confused. So then why would anyone NOT opt out? What would the point of that be?

Exactly NotOnTheBeach, this is where it gets confusing and nobody seems to have an answer for this

I'm the same, am not opting out as don't want to give "them" the easy option, the whole thing has not been thought out, it is unfair and a complete nightmare to administer.

We have four DC so will lose 3K a year equivalent to 5K pay cut in real terms.

It's a lot to lose in one go really, I know we aren't on the breadline as such but it's still a lot of money.

I agree its not clear but when i finally found the poorly signed questions and answers bit on HMRCs website it confirmed this. By opting out it will have no impact on your NI contributions (state pension) You are not opting out of Child Benefit entitlement just opting out of receiving the cash if that makes sense. You can do this online on the HMRC website.
The point to note is that you must register any additional children you have as being entitled even if you don't claim the cash as this will keep you & your child in the system - keeping your NI credits and making sure your child receives a NI number at 16

Okay, so what are the implications of opting out then?

The child benefit office have said that opting out will have no effect on your pension "contributions" - but as others have said, you need to make sure any future kids get registered - so you get NI equivalent paid until the youngest is 12. BUT there is the other side as well - if the higher rate taxpayer suddenly earns less one year, you have to opt back in , but it cannot be done retrospectively (you cannot claim for any time before the opt-in) - you could end up missing out on child benefit in that scenario..

If you have simple tax affairs- a job paying tax through the PAYE system, without complicated savings/benefits in kind etc, then a tax return is the way to go.

I am in exactly the same position except I have just started working. Your entitlement to CB means that your NI contributions have been kept up. Even when you opt out you are still ENTITLED to receive CB therefore these contributions will continue. (You are just opting out of receiving it then having to pay it back as tax.)

I double checked with my Tax Consultant sister and then opted out this morning.

So why haven't I had a letter about all this anyway?

SeeYou
HMRC appear to have cocked up sending out the letters
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9779444/Cut-to-child-benefit-is-the-worst-shambles-since-poll-tax-says-MP.html

I got mine before Xmas.

Because the whole thing is a shambles - which is why I am opting out, I don't trust them.

We are affected but we haven't received a letter.

As others have said, if your child was registered for child benefit then opting out will have no impact on your state pension but any future children will have to be registered.

Okay so as I'm not going to have any more children it would seem the sensible thing to do would be to opt out. I'll do that tomorrow if I can work our where as I have no letter.

opting out of receiving payment will still allow you to accrue pension credits to protect your pension until youngest is 12.

here

We haven't received a letter either and both dh and I both earn over £60k, we haven't changed address nor have our salaries changed recently so I cannot for the life of me figure out how we have slipped through the net - sheer incompetence, obviously. I dread to think how badly organised the tax reclaim will be if they can't even manage to write to those affected.

I would say it depends on whether you're DP already does a self assessment. Mine first did a self assessment about 6 years ago as we realised he could claim back a few K tax relief on his pension contributions. Once you do it once you then do it every year - and for the last 5 we have ended up owing between £1-£2K per year because - despite being PAYE - they keep getting his tax code wrong. Grrrr.. We will no longer count for child health benefit but are going to to claim it and pay it back through self assessment which DP has to do anyway - might as well put it in a high interest account and try and get a few pounds interest on it.

Same here Edwinbear - and we haven't received anything from them either. I knew cb would be going but for some reason had assumed it would be in April at end of tax year - only found out otherwise from reading the Metro this morning! Shambles indeed.