Pensions - Child benefit and contributions

[LauraRo]

Hello all - I have been trying to read up on stay at home parents and national insurance contributions. Some thing I am reading seem to suggest that if you are registered for child benefit your national insurance contributions are protected and others seem to suggest that you have to claim child benefit but opt out of payment to get national insurance contributions, which is something I have never heard of before. Basically I want to protect my state pension and know I will have a big gap in my contributions if I don't figure this out! Any help or tips regarding pensions and being a stay at home parent gratefully received.

Claiming child benefit will give NI credits up until your youngest is 12. You can opt in or out of payment depending on the income of the higher earner.

Dementedpixie is right.

Does that mean if the higher earner earns over the regular payment threshold (which incurs a tax charge?) you can opt out of payment but carry on receiving nat insurance contributions? That isn't relevant to us atm but I am still not fully understanding that part of what I have read. But as we get child benefit and my partner currently earns 45k I assume I am all ok and my contributions are protected? Thank you!

Yes you would still get NI credits if you claim but opt out of payment. You only start to pay the high income charge once wages go over £50k. Once you reach £60k it would all get paid back or alternatively you could opt out of payment

Thanks so much - I appreciate the help.

You will get Class 3 National Insurance credits while you are getting child benefit for a child under 12. These NI credits will count towards your state pension.
See www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility

You need a plan for what you will do after your youngest turns 12. Ideally you will return to work at that point (if not before).

Also consider that the state pension is not a huge amount. Most working people will also have an occupational (private) pension to top up their state pension.

Do you have a partner and are you married or not? If you are married you have some protection and a right to a share of his pension. If you are an unmarried SAHP, you need to consider making payments into your own personal pension.

And don’t forget, spread the word that if grandparents under state pension age are doing the childcare while the parents work, the same Ni contributions can be claimed towards their record.

@Knittingnanny I've just stumbled upon this. How do they do that?

@MeadowHay I didn't know this either but a quick Google reveals it is true. Grandparents can take your NI credits even if you don't actually claim CB because you earn too much.

www.litrg.org.uk/latest-news/news/191219-grandparents-%E2%80%93-claim-your-state-pension-%E2%80%98babysitting%E2%80%99-credits

It links through to the gov site which says they can also claim for this year even if they've been supporting at a distance via video call!!

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-application-for-specified-adult-childcare-credits-ca9176www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-application-for-specified-adult-childcare-credits-ca9176" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-application-for-specified-adult-childcare-credits-ca9176www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-application-for-specified-adult-childcare-credits-ca9176

[quote Cardboard33]@MeadowHay I didn't know this either but a quick Google reveals it is true. Grandparents can take your NI credits even if you don't actually claim CB because you earn too much.

www.litrg.org.uk/latest-news/news/191219-grandparents-%E2%80%93-claim-your-state-pension-%E2%80%98babysitting%E2%80%99-credits

It links through to the gov site which says they can also claim for this year even if they've been supporting at a distance via video call!!

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-application-for-specified-adult-childcare-credits-ca9176www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-application-for-specified-adult-childcare-credits-ca9176" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-application-for-specified-adult-childcare-credits-ca9176www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-application-for-specified-adult-childcare-credits-ca9176[/quote]
The info it gives tells you not to put in a claim until November for the previous tax year, i.e. 2019/20 claim in November 2020. This is due to it taking up til then for all relevant info to be uploaded (or something like that!). There's no urgency as you have I believe 4 years to sort out NI credits

@Soontobe60 I know, I can read and assumed other people were able to too which is why I didn't quote the website word for word...