UK. Stay at home parents risk losing thousands from their state pension if they don’t register for Child Benefit
The Government’s information about state pensions clearly isn’t up to scratch. It needs to put this right urgently
When new parents are thinking about their household finances, many will consider claiming Child Benefit. Many will not, however, think about National Insurance credits.
Yet registering for Child Benefit builds up entitlement to the state pension for parents of children under 12 who don’t build up National Insurance contributions for another reason, such as through work.
Put simply, a stay-at-home parent needs to register for the benefit in order to get the National Insurance credits needed for the full state pension. For households where the stay-at-home parent doesn’t register, but the earning parent does, the stay-at-home parent could lose thousands of pounds of retirement income.
However, in new data obtained by the Treasury Committee, HMRC estimates that of the 7.9 million households in the UK receiving Child Benefit, around three per cent – more than 200,000 households – may not be benefiting from the available National Insurance credits because the Child Benefit is claimed by the higher earner.
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