If I was a Sahm in the U.K., would I get my pension paid into?

[Nomoresundaynightdread]

I’m British, but live abroad at the moment.
I was speaking to my mum, she was a Sahm for years when we were kids (common in the 80’s) she then when to work when we were a little older. She was saying to me that she received payment towards her pension? For staying at home, I’m sure it was until we were 18? Is this true and does that happen now?
Where I am, I’m sure it’s not the case at all and I have to work in order to pay into my future state pension.
Also, if you’re at home and not working, do you have free access to uni/college courses? I’ve always wanted to do a masters, but would have to pay for it myself where I am and we simply can’t afford it at the moment.
I’ve heard both these things, is it true?
Seems so much harder where I am, we don’t get benefits/help in the same way at all.

Home Responsibilities Protection ran from 6 April 1978 to 5 April 2010. This was for the person claiming Child Benefit for a child under 16.

From 6 April 2010 it was replaced by National Insurance Credits for those claiming Child Benefit with a child under 12.

If you only worked part time in the UK then you might not have paid in the minimum amount of contributions required each year. Have you seen these pages, it's important you check your record and check what amount of state pension you may get. Have you worked full time in Portugal all these years - you also have to check if pension contributions paid in Portugal can count towards your UK pension and how they will affect the amount of UK pension you get.

https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre

If you are a SAHP it is worth claiming CB for the NI contributions even if your partner earns over the £50k.

Portugal has low income tax, doesn't it. These things tend to balance out for citizens in the middle economic majority.

Information on the UK govt website is pretty good these days.

My mum got child benefit in the 1970s. I’ve seen the statements.

Yes but non working claimants didn’t get NI credits until 2011.

Sorry, I did not realise that “it” referred to getting SAHP NI credits rather than to child benefit itself. My mistake.

I’m not sure you would qualify for a UK pension? You have to work 35 years and have only worked 8 partial years.

Means you have to work a further 27 years in the U.K. (or be claiming child benefit until child 12).

Did you say in your 40s? Might be tight!

@LDA123 I’m not sure if that’s the case? I remember reading about them putting the two together possibly, but I’m not sure how 🤷🏻‍♀️If I do return to the U.K. I have years of both countries, not sure how that works

For a UK pension, you have to have a minimum 10 years work to qualify. You can count oversea work to make up the 10 years.

But I believe you’ll only get an amount based on what you have actually worked in the UK. So in your case, 8 partial years. So you’ll get 8/35 of the full amount (or however they calculate it!)

That’s how I understand it anyway!

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/living-and-working-overseas

@LDA123 Thank you, it’s quite confusing! I don’t know how it would work if I moved back, how would I get all the years from where I am now 🤷🏻‍♀️

They did, sort of.

Non working.claimants didn't get NI Credits before 2011, but the did get Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP)

https://www.gov.uk/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp

HRP ran from 1978 to 2010 and was essentially a NI "credit".

To be really boring, the HRP wasn't really a "credit", but it's easier to think of it that way.
Really, what HRP did was reduce the number of years you need to pay into, to qualify for the full state pension.

For example, at the moment you need to have 35 years worth of NI to qualify for full state pension.
If you have, say, 22 years of HRP, then this reduces the number of years of NI you need down to 13 years, to get the full state pension.

This is why the Op's mum has a state pension. It's also why my mum has a state pension. My mum claimed child benefit from 1979 to 2008 and has HRP to reduce the number of years she had to pay NI to get the full state pension.

I believe you need to look at reciprocal benefits arrangements between the UK and Portugal to answer that particular question.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/reciprocal-agreements/reciprocal-agreements

So basically you need to be paying social security contributions in Portugal for the reciprocal agreement to be active.

Are you paying social security contributions?

If not then it's unlikely you will be building up qualifying years.

@CaptainSeven I am, when we work and have a contract etc, it’s paid from the wages every month. So does this mean I’ll have a U.K. pension or Portuguese 😬

As I understand it, but I could be wrong, if you are paying social security contributions in a EU country, you can use the years to qualify for UK State pension. But, they do not count towards calculating how much UK state pension you'll receive.

I think, you used to be able to "transfer" the social security contributions from a EU country to the UK, so that it counts in calculating State Pension. But you can no longer do that now.

@minou123 That can no longer be done?

So, imagine I’d worked 18 years here and 8 (part time whilst studying) years in the U.K. would that mean I’d done 26 years and need to do 9 more to get to 35 and qualify for a pension?

It's not Mmy area of expertise, but from the personal bits and pieces I've done for my parents, it can no longer be done.

My parents worked and paid social security contributions in France for a few years and also paid NI in UK. We asked to transfer the social security from France to the UK, to increase the UK state pension, and we were told no.

Instead, the number of years they paid into the French social security means they qualify for the French State Pension.
So, now, they receive a UK State Pension and a French State Pension.

I don't know the Portuguese state pension rules, so I can't comment on if you qualify if you have been paying into thier system.

No. That's not quite how it works.

To get the UK state pension you need a minimum of 10 years to qualify.
At the moment you have 8 years, so you probably don't qualify for UK state pension, at the moment.

You may be able to use the years you've paid into the Portuguese social security to up your 8 years to 10 years to qualify.

But when calculating the UK state pension you are entitled to, they only look at how many years you've paid NI in the UK.
At the moment you have paid 8 years, so you would get 8/35 of the UK state pension.
For instances, let's say the full UK state pension is £100 per week (I dont know the exact amount) At the moment you would only get 8/35 of £100, which is about £22 per week.

To be sure, you can get a UK state pension forecast. The forecast is really good. It tells you exactly how many years you have now and how much you'll get. It'll also tell you what you need to do and if you need to pay more NI years to increase your state pension
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

@minou123 Thank you, it’s still v confusing though
I’m just hoping it’s not counted as I’ve only contributed 18 years, I’ll have to make up 17 more. It wasn’t what I was hoping for and doesn’t seem fair when I have actually worked for so long

You can pay voluntary contributions for the years you are away and not working or claiming child benefit in the UK. It isn't much. Look on the government website.

@Youdoyoubabe I was told it’s quite a lot per month/year

Are you sure it’s not much?

My missing years were around £750 per year. And there’s a limit to how many years you can go back.