child benefit/state pension - what happens now?

[daffodillsinvase]

Trying to get organised with finances this year - haven't been particularly great with this in the past, for various reasons, so the time is now!

I have three kids and because of various years that we were eligible for child benefit (and my own contributions when I was an employee), I am on track to receive the full state pension, according to my record on HMRC.

However, my kids are now aged 16, 14 and 12. My DH earns more than 60k a year and I am freelance, so my income is irregular.

I have a historic workplace pension that is worth about 32k - it's a Money Purchase one.

At the end of last year I opened another stakeholder pension (it is a stakeholder pension designed specifically for people in my industry who work freelance.) When I am employed by companies on a freelance basis, that employer makes a contribution to this pension on top of my fee, and I contribute a proportion of my fee towards it.

I am confused about what happens with my state pension now and what we need to do in order to keep the state pension going (if we can). My eldest turned 16 in August and my youngest turned 12 in September - all 3 kids are still in full time education.

Equally, I don't know what my best options are in terms of my two other private pensions and if I should top up on a monthly basis if possible (even if it's just 100 quid a month), or really try to put as big a lump sum into one of the pensions, as soon as I can (or both).

Can anyone advise? Thanks so much for getting this far!

You don't get NI credits via CB once your DC are 12

So you will need to consider paying NICs in line with your freelance work, or making voluntary contributions if that won't be enough to buy each year as you go along

You can pay for the NICs you have missed. I paid one huge block then it's around £80 a month since in voluntary contributions. DWP were very helpful, HMRC were once they got sorted out.

Thank you so much. Ok I am beginning to understand a bit more - I think I will need to make the NI contributions myself as of the next financial year - I need to make contributions for the next seven years in order to be eligible for the full state pension.

In terms of the other private pensions, does anyone have any thoughts about what to do? I am aware they are utterly rubbish for my age (late 40s) - I have been lax about the whole pension thing, mainly because my parents both sadly died quite young and I inherited enough money to buy a house outright over a decade ago.

Our plan was always to eventually sell the house and downsize - using the proceeds to help with retirement income, and also help the kids with deposits etc...but given I don't intend to retire for another 20 years, and given that I don't really want to sell the house anytime soon, I really need to get my shit together and sort this out.

Do I put as much as possible into the private pensions as soon as I can? It's possible I could stick the odd 1k in a few times a year, but equally maybe putting in a 50 quid a month would also be a good idea...

If you're freelance, aren't you self employed? In which case you are paying Class IV NI on your profits?

@PickledPurplePickle - I am registered freelance, but not self employed. Either way the NI contributions will be okay as I realise I can now top them up myself now my youngest is 12.

It's handling the other pensions that I am concerned about...x

Assuming you're self employed, you will be given "freebie" NIC contributions (Class 2) if your self employed profits are between £6725 and £12570 per year. If your profits are below £6725 you can opt to voluntarily pay class 2 contributions for £3.45 per week. If your profits are over £12570 you have to pay £3.45 per week for class 2 contributions. So, basically, you only need to worry if your profits are under £6725 - otherwise you'll automatically get class 2 credits by either getting them free (like your nic credits whilst your children were young) or compulsorarily have to pay for them.

Forget and ignore class 4 contributions. They're just another tax and don't count towards state pension in any way.

Does your DH have a pension/decent scheme? Have you discussed it with him and checked regarding any spouse/dependent benefits you may be entitled to, as well as the work on your pension entitlements in your own right?