Pensions blow looming for 200,000 parents

MORE than 200,000 middle-class parents could miss out on a full state pension when they retire because of controversial changes to the child benefit system, a Treasury minister has admitted.

Changes in 2012 ended payments to families in which a parent earns more than £60,000 a year, but it means that if one stays at home to care for their children they could miss out on National Insurance credits needed to qualify for a full state pension in later life.

Mel Stride, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, warned that many better-off parents ‘might be missing out’.