We got caught in the child support trap. Should we buy more years? STEVE WEBB replies

My wife and I got caught with child support state pension trap which you have written about before.

Essentially we never claimed child benefit (because we understood it would be phased out) and didn’t realize the impact this would have on national insurance contributions.

As a result, there were a number of years between 2013 and now when my wife was not working and was a full-time carer, leaving gaps in her NI record.

In your article you mention that the government plans to allow families to recover their NI data from April 2026. At the same time, I am aware that there is a deadline for topping up historical NI contributions, which ends in April 2025.

My question is: do we have to pay now (before April 2025) to supplement my wife’s historic contributions and then hopefully be able to reclaim them in 2026?

Or should we wait and rely on the government’s proposed repair process so we don’t have to pay up front? The risk with the second approach is clearly that the ‘repair process’ may not materialize.

I would be grateful for any insight or advice you can provide. I imagine this question may also be relevant to other readers in a similar situation.

SCROLL DOWN TO FIND OUT HOW TO ASK STEVE YOUR PENSION QUESTION

Steve Webb replies: One of the most valuable features of the National Insurance Scheme is that it provides ‘credits’ to certain groups who have not actually paid NI contributions in a given year.

These credits help protect the NI record of those who are not in paid work due to caring responsibilities or who are claiming benefits because they are unable to work due to ill health etc.

Until high income child benefit was introduced in 2013, there was almost 100 per cent take-up of child benefit and anyone on child benefit with a child under the age of 12 (or under 16 before 2010) automatically had protection on their NI record for their or her state pension.

But when higher-income families faced a tax levy that could wipe out some or all of the value of child benefits, hundreds of thousands of people—like you and your wife—decided not to apply for child benefits.

Unfortunately, this meant that you also lost the associated National Insurance credit. And even if you make a child benefit claim now, this would only be backdated by three months, leaving your wife with gaps in her NI file for several years.

The original ‘solution’ introduced by the government was that people would be able to claim child benefit NI credits, but not the benefit itself.

This meant that you had to get and fill in a child benefit application form, but you had to tick a box to indicate that you didn’t really want the money, just the credits on your NI record.

Unsurprisingly, many people were unaware of this system and it never occurred to them that they would have to fill out a benefit application form but ask not to get the money.

Belatedly, the previous government realized that many mothers (in particular) were at risk of lower state pensions due to years of gaps in their NI record during periods when child benefit was not claimed.

The proposed solution was a new category of NI credits for those who would have received NI credits if they had claimed child benefit (since 2013) but did not do so due to the high income tax.

However, although the intention to introduce this new system has been announced, no legislation has been implemented or even published to date.

My assumption is that the new government will probably continue the policies announced by its predecessors.

You might imagine that a Labor government would be concerned about the ‘gender pension gap’ and would want to take steps to prevent a new state pension gap from emerging as a result of the child benefit issue.

However, I am not aware that this policy has been formally confirmed by the new government.

As you say, the ability to make historic voluntary contributions (going back more than six years) will expire on April 5 next year, so if child benefit were to be scrapped, you’d want to know sooner rather than later.

However, I think it would be risky to make voluntary payments in the hope that they will be repaid if or when the new credits are introduced.

The best I can suggest is that you (and other readers) ask your local MP to write to the Treasury (which oversees HMRC and the National Insurance Scheme) and ask for written guarantees that the new appropriations will be entered.

The more letters from MPs a ministry receives, the more likely ministers are to take note of an issue and give it the priority it deserves.