AIBU to be hacked off with 2 government departments (Child Benefit and National Insurance) not commnicating? This could affect pensions for thousands of women.

[messiejessie]

I have discovered I am missing NI credits for several years when I was a SAHM with 4 children under 12. I have until 5 April 25 to pay to get these years totalling £4343.30, when really I should get them for free. Child Benefit say because I did not claim for CB , it is too late to retrospectively claim, which would give me free credits towards my pension. The reason I didn't claim is because my husband was in the High Income bracket so I would not want to receive the benefit. When the children were born in the Uk I did initially receive CB but then we moved to a EU country for 3 years, during which time the High Income Charge came in. When we came back it was not made clear that you needed to still be registered with Child Benefit in order to receive the NI pension credit. The communication with the public from HM Revenue is lacking, particularly after the change of rules, when we were told to 'choose not to receive these benefits'. It was not made clear at the time that choosing not to sign up at all would affect one's pension.
This issue of 2 government departments being unable to share information and communicate with each other is frustrating will be affecting the pensions of thousands of women or bullying them into paying up, which is clearly unfair. During this time my husband made full NI payments.
Martin Lewis did an expose of this which forced the government to extend the deadline last year because no-one could get though on the phone. Martin Lewis said that women doing childcare for under 12s are entitled to free credits but it seems Child Benefit are blocking this for those who had not applied. Jeremy Hunt said that women should not be unfairly penalised, but it seems the rules have not changed. Has anyone had any joy with these departments? I have spent hours on the phone on hold and spoken to each department, both of which tell me to call the other. I would welcome hearing from others affected. It is an issue of national importance for women and the deadline to sort these credits out is 5 April 25.

There is an option on the form to claim the credits but not the actual money which is what I have always done as we have always been above the threshold.

my not getting it was due to me moving to EU. when I came back I did not realise that I should have reregistered to gain the credits as this initially had not been communicated to me.

My point is that these are free years, when I was looking after children under 12. I am now self employed so can make contributions going forward but hope to retire earlier so Im loathe to miss out on 5 years of 'free contributions" . The Work and Pensions have given 6 years to people to retrospectively claim but child benefit don't do the same. I'm not asking them for any benefit just my pension credits

I don't understand the relevance of this dispute you keep repeating it....

Surely if you are moving countries and wish to take advantage of any and all financial privileges after moving, you should research and look up all benefits you might be entitled to.

Ultimately, everyone else seems to know about it.

You are being VERY unreasonable. If waspi women are expected to know about changes the government make then you youngsters should also know about the changes. What’s that? Unfair I hear you cry, how can you be expected to know? - exactly my point Tough titty as so many of you lovely lot have been saying to the older generation of women who, on the whole, didn’t have jobs to save for pensions of their own. Who didn’t have the internet to consult to as easily as we all do today. Who were told it was ok to pay the reduced stamp without a full explanation as to how that would impact them. You made your bed. Lie in it.

I think you were ill advised when you lived abroad. I continued to get ni credits when living in EEA.

It was made pretty clear at the time. You only have to pay in 35 years for a full pension anyway

I'm not impacted by this at all but even I know these rules. Did your DH have an accountant? Do a self assessment? I don’t know how it works for overseas workers

do the 4 years really impact you overall? Will you still get 35 years of NI payment before you retire!

This is how I see it too.

Like OP, I received CB prior to the HIC. I also left the country for a few years and cancelled my CB claim. Upon return, I re-registered but had a combination of my husband making partial repayment via Self Assessment and simply opting out of payments, probably due to receiving the same leaflet.

I'm missing some NI years from being out of the country, but got my NI credits once bavk in the UK while my youngest was under 12. It was pretty easy to follow the official guidance and there was lots of non-government advice on the issue too.

Sorry you are in this position, but you are blaming the wrong party. Hopefully you have time to make up your NI years before you retire. I still.need to make up 6 years, but I'm in my late 40's, so don't think it necessary to pay for the previous partial/ missing years available to me.

Pay the 4k and move on with your life. You messed up by not claiming. You can't blame the government for not telling you something when you weren't living here. Did you not research it properly when you got back?

Dh is a high earner. I’ve always claimed my child benefit and he has always paid the tax on it. It evens us out financially since I have worked PT at certain periods and earn less in my industry anyway. It definitely always seemed the sensible thing to do and i haven’t lost any NI credits.

Unless you’re close to retirement age I wouldn’t worry about it. You’ll have years left to claim/pay NI now. And being self employed you can always make the very small payment of a couple of quid a week to count, if your kids are now too old to claim CB. Which would be less than that £4K.

Which leaflet was it and how long ago was it?

The gov.uk guidance specifically mentions this but there isn't a current leaflet that covers this area (the one on child benefit when returning from abroad, which had been around since 2014 doesn't mention high income at all).

I sympathise OP. I'm aware of the issue now through MN, but wasn't at the time my daughter was born 10 years ago. People are saying it was clear on the form. I never saw a form. 🤷‍♀️I knew we earned over the threshold so CB wasn't on my radar at all.

I went straight back to work after mat leave so I haven't lost out but this definitely passed me by at the relevant time.

I consider myself well-informed generally, etc but I do not know anything about the benefit system as I haven't claimed anything since a few weeks of dole money when I finished university in the 90s. I was just aware that CB had been moved from being a universal benefit to one only paid to those below a certain income level and we didn't qualify so I didn't look at it any further.

I claimed CB as I was earning under the threshold for a few years when they brought in the higher income limit, and DH was the higher earner and earning just over. He did tax returns and paid the tax. Then I went back onto PAYE work in about 2014-2016 and had several short term/part time contracts for a couple of years before getting a permanent job, which took me over the higher earning threshold as well as DH.

HMRC actually wrote to me at this time and told me I didn't need to do tax returns any longer. As far as I was concerned, DH was doing tax returns in this period (though all of his income is PAYE) which reflected the CB, I was on PAYE and so the government knew that a) I was married to DH and he was accounting for the tax b) exactly how much I earned and claimed in CB without my needing to tell them.

Until the end of 2020, when HMRC wrote to me saying I owed about £1800 in tax from five years ago when for two years I claimed CB and was over the threshold. As apparently DH hadn't done tax returns those two years after all as they also told him he didn't need to. DH also works for the government and has high level security clearance so they know what he eats for breakfast never mind what he earns and that we are married.

It was an absolutely shitshow. I did pay it and only avoided paying penalties on top as I wrote them a cracking polite fuck off letter explaining all of the above.

What was particularly awful as well was they kept recalculating what I owed without telling me. So every time I logged into my HMRC account for a couple of months there was another £100 to pay. With a deadline to pay of the following week, which I would have missed if I hadn't happened to log in and check.

That and the way they totally fucked up my DM's tax affairs (pensioner and widow barely into 22% tax threshold) keeping writing to her saying she owes money or has not paid amounts she knew she had has made me totally lose confidence in them.

Also I have, thanks to that experience, a constant low level of anxiety, in spite of being in a permanent job and only PAYE and no CB for the last seven years, that they will write to me at some point in the future and say I have done something wrong and owe thousands of pounds.

My NI is actually ok but at the cost of losing all my savings from not travelling in 2020.

I have missing years from university time but I will have plenty of years by the time I retire.

It Seems many others have been affected by this due to moving overseas and the Government are aware and will let people claim NI credits who were not registered for Child Benefit in the future going back to 2013. A system to do that will be available in 2026. www.thesun.co.uk/money/25383195/state-pension-credits-child-benefit-charge-national-insurance/

Are you talking about claiming for years when you didn't even live here?

It's nothing to do with moving overseas.

But I'm not clear that backdating is still happening. It was a proposal under the previous government. Did they ever legislate for it?

I’m sorry but I think you’ve misunderstood. Your leaflet says:

• Choose not to receive Child Benefit payments. This means you or your partner will not have to pay the charge. Visit GOVUK
or contact the Child Benefit Office by phone or post to stop your payments.

you still have to submit a child benefit claim but choose not to receive payments.

your child benefit claim would have ceased when you went abroad, but you can retrospectively claim for the years you returned to the uk. You need to complete form Cf411 on the gov.uk website - have you submitted this form and received a formal decision?

the time limit for paying class 3 can be extended if you are waiting for a decision on the credits