state pension national insurance contributions

dlk

Don't know if anyone can clarify what I believe to be the case after reading the hmrc website, I just wanted to make sure I wasnt making a mistake.

I work but my partner stays at home with our daughter (which will be until she starts school).

My partner has been signing on, getting no benefits due to my work but doing so to maintain her national insurance for pension reasons.

From what I can gather as she has 10 years work behind her an will return to work when she is 37 she would only need to work 20 more years to qualify for a full pension.

Is she therefore wasting her time signing on every two weeks. Quite frankly if she is going to get full pension anyway without signing on , it will save us her bus fare and time every two weeks if she can stop doing so.

Am I missing any other reason for her to continue signing on?

BigAunty

Suppose she doesn't return to work?

little_monkey

If it was me i'd keep signing on so that i would'nt have to work 20 more full years to qualify for full state pension(you never know whats round the corner).And they might need enough continuous N.I.contributions to get contribution based ESA in the nearer future.

BigAunty

do parents in receipt of Child Benefit automatically get NI paid for the purposes of the state pension or is this not the case?

The OP should encourage his wife to get a state pension forecast and double check her qualifying years. There's a link on the Direct Gov website which will probably also explain about NI contributions and pensions in greater detail.

little_monkey

I think both men & woman now need 30 full years contributions to N.I. to get full pension

McKneff

BigAunty wrote: »

do parents in receipt of Child Benefit automatically get NI paid for the purposes of the state pension or is this not the case?

The OP should encourage his wife to get a state pension forecast and double check her qualifying years. There's a link on the Direct Gov website which will probably also explain about NI contributions and pensions in greater detail.

Im sure BigAunty is correct regarding getting NI credits if the child benefit is paid to her. So she probably doesnt need to go and sign on at all unless she is looking for work.

And remember, just because the legislation is 30 years now, it doesnt mean it will be 30 years in the future, if indeed there is any such thing as a state pension by then.


Google it.

annie1975_2

BigAunty wrote: »

do parents in receipt of Child Benefit automatically get NI paid for the purposes of the state pension or is this not the case?

The OP should encourage his wife to get a state pension forecast and double check her qualifying years. There's a link on the Direct Gov website which will probably also explain about NI contributions and pensions in greater detail.

Yes correct.. You get 19 years in total when in receipt of child benefit.
I got 16 years for my first child and the other 3 years for my second child..

Mupette

is there somewhere online that we can check our own nic for this,

i remember years ago it was a case of ringing someone from nic to do this.

zagfles

You get credits for the basic & second state pension if you get child benefit for a child under 12.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/start/claiming/protect-pension.htm

McKneff

Mupette wrote: »

is there somewhere online that we can check our own nic for this,

i remember years ago it was a case of ringing someone from nic to do this.

Ring the DWP, they can tell you straight away how many years NIC you have paid.

Horseunderwater

It used to be called home responsibilities protection and you get it for a minimum of 16 years, which if they stay on to do A levels go to college can be upto 19 years old.
Anyone can check their NI contributions on the direct gov site. You only need your NI number and date of birth I think. I used to get letters from them telling me I had missing years, but when they checked I had the HR protection and they were not missing at all. All got updated and I now am on target. I think I may even have hit the magic 30 years yesterday as I was 48 years old and started work at 18 full time.