I don’t qualify for child benefit any more so will I lose state pension credits?

Recently I have moved in with my partner and no longer work or receive child benefit because my partner earns too much money.

I am worried that my National Insurance credits have stopped and don’t know what I can do or if it will affect my pension. I am 35 years old.

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Steve Webb replies: If you are no longer in paid work and no longer paying National Insurance contributions then it is vitally important to make sure that everything is in order regarding the NI credits which you may be able to get as a parent.

In normal circumstances, if you are receiving child benefit for a child under 12 then you should automatically get National Insurance credits towards your state pension.

These credits go to the person who claims the Child Benefit (though there are ways to get the credits transferred to their partner if the claimant does not need them).

Credits may also be available if you are a foster carer, though it is necessary to apply for these.

These credits are very valuable because a year of credits now makes exactly the same contribution to your state pension as a year in paid work.

Both count as one ‘qualifying year’ towards your final pension.

Unfortunately, since the ‘High Income Child Benefit Charge’ was introduced in 2013, some higher income couples have decided not to claim child benefit.

This is because the higher earner in the couple can end up getting a tax bill which wipes out some or all of the value of their child benefit.

However, for a couple in this situation a better approach is to make a child benefit claim and then tick the box that allows you to decline the cash payment but accept the National Insurance credits.

This is shown below in the excerpt from the Child Benefit claim form.

To avoid the tax charge but benefit from the NI credits, you can tick the box at Question 62 on the form to say ‘No, I do not want to be paid Child Benefit but I want to protect my state pension’.

Your situation is slightly different as it sounds as though you were previously getting child benefit but have decided to stop getting it.

My understanding is that as long as you were in the system already and simply renounced the cash payment, you should still go on getting NI credits.

But the simplest thing to do would be to contact the child benefit helpline and simply ask them to confirm that you are still getting credits.

If you are not, they should be able to tell you how to put this right.

I would encourage every parent to claim their NI credits even if they do not want the child benefit.

There is a very strict deadline of three months’ backdating on claims, which means if you do not make a claim and sort things out at the time, it can be too late to fix things if you realise your mistake years later.