Child benefit for higher income families and NI credits

[Aoifeaye]

Hi, I am a sahm with a 3 year old. Dp earns £100k p/a. When my child was born I was told that I should not claim child benefit as our household income is too high, however I have now found out that claiming goes towards your NI credits.

I think I filled out the form at the time and ticked that I did not want to claim. How can I find out if my NI contributions are being made?

They won't be being paid. You need to claim and then your DH will need to fill in a tax return so that the government may reclaim it from him.

Yes as above, you can claim it but it would need to be declared via tax return and paid back.

Thank you for replies. If I start doing this now will it have messed up my contributions a lot? He was born late June 2014 and I haven't worked since then. Feel scared I've wrecked my future.

To be honest I don't know as I haven't looked into in that much depth, might be worth contacting them to clarify. Off to check my own now 😃

Are you sure you didn't tick the box for higher earners to say that you want to claim child benefit but not receive the money? They would then have sent out a letter saying you are eligible for child benefit but have opted out of being paid. I believe that this is supposed to preserve your ni credits without needing to do a tax return and pay back the money.

If you sign up to government gateway I think it is called you can check your nI

As long as you submitted the registration form but elected not to receive payment your ni record is maintained until child is 13. You should have a letter confirming it.

Posted to soon! You can check your ni contributions and see if any years are missed

On £100k a year I doubt you'd have "wrecked your future"

Storm - that's an unfair comment. Even though op's husband has a high paying job now , she still needs to protect her entitlement to her state pension -not being pessimistic but anything could happen - illness, separation etc.

I believe at the moment you need to have 30 or 35 years full NI credits to get full state pension. So assuming you have worked for a few years before and plan to work again later you certainly haven’t screwed yourself in terms of state pension. To be honest the state pension may not exist when you retire anyway.

Just call them. Ask.
www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/national-insurance-enquiries-for-employees-and-individuals

@StormcloakNord we aren't married and I want to leave him.

Thank you everyone

You need to call and see if they will backdated.
You need to find out what happens if you leave and where you will be financially as a single parent . Get some proper advice.
He has to pay maintenance for the dc but nothing to you as unmarried. Call child maintenance options.

www.cmoptions.org

Thank you very much cestlavie.

You can claim child benefit but opt out of payment as that is what I did. This still protects your NI credits