State Pension boost

Older people in Lanarkshire providing care during the Easter school holidays for children under the age of 12 may be able to boost State Pension payments by more than £6000 over a typical 20-year retirement period.

A single extra National Insurance credit currently adds around £303-a-year on to the full, New State Pension.

The State Pension top-up is known as Specified Adult Childcare and works by transferring the National Insurance credit attached to Child Benefit from the Child Benefit recipient to a family member who is providing care for a related child under 12, or 17 if they have a disability.

You will receive a Class 3 National Insurance credit for each week or part week you provided care for the child, but there is only one credit available for each Child Benefit claim – no matter how many children are on the claim itself.

For example, if two grandparents provided care for their daughter’s two children, there is only one credit available for transfer and the Child Benefit recipient must decide who should have the credit.

However, if the grandparents also have a son and provide care for their daughter’s child and their son’s child, there are likely to be two Child Benefit recipients and therefore, two credits are available for transfer.

If no one has claimed Child Benefit for the child there is no attached National Insurance credit to transfer and credits cannot then be awarded for the claimant.

The boost is only available for looking after children whose parents are working, so they don’t need the National Insurance credits from claiming Child Benefit to go towards their own State Pension.

You can put in a retrospective claim for Specified Adult Childcare going back to April 6, 2011.

Meanwhile, Guidance on GOV.UK says that, from March 2020, your normal caring arrangements may have been affected by Covid-19.

This means that if you provided care, even if it was remotely over the phone, by text message or video call during the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, you may also be able to plug any gaps in your National Insurance record by claiming Specified Adult Childcare.

This applies to the tax years 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021.

The full, New State Pension is worth £203.85 per week (rising to £221.20 in April), equivalent to £10,600 each year, but to receive that maximum amount you need around 35 years’worth of National Insurance contributions.

You need at least 10 years to receive any payment at all.

To complete an application form, you will need your personal details as the eligible family member that provided care for the child; the child’s details and the periods you provided care for them; and the personal details of the child’s parent or main carer – the Child Benefit recipient.