Stay at home mum what to do with pension from previous employment/ future pension&childcare benefit?

Stephanie1983

Hi All,
I was made redundant last summer, and as a family we took the decision that I would become a stay at home mum.
My query is in relation to my pension. I have worked for the past 15 years continuously and paid into a private pension and made regular NI contributions etc.
My husband is a high rate tax payer and so I have not claimed any income support, benefits etc since being made redundant. However, it has been suggested that I should claim child benefit (even though I would have to pay it back) in order to get the NI/ state pension contributions as I am not currently paying into anything.
Hope this makes sense? The government website is not very clear on this, and whilst my children are so little I am not sure I will be out of work for but it could be for the foreseeable future.
Thank you all for reading my query.

Thanks
Stephanie

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge/your-circumstances-change

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/what-youll-get

Could your husband not make sufficient pension contributions from his salary for you to keep the CB?

https://www.pruadviser.co.uk/knowledge-literature/knowledge-library/reduce-high-income-child-benefit-charge/

xylophone

And remember that even without "relevant earnings", it is still possible for you to contribute up to £2880 per annum into a personal pension/stakeholder and receive tax relief of up to £720.

Dazed_and_confused

However, it has been suggested that I should claim child benefit (even though I would have to pay it back)

You wouldn't have to pay it back though. Your husband would and depending on the amounts involved it can effectively be an interest free loan which you can earn some interest on.

Child Benefit paid to you now won't normally need to be repaid until 31 January 2021 at the earliest. It's possible it might not have to be fully repaid until March 2022.

IanSt

It is definitely worth your while to claim the child benefit as it's a very simple way to keep your national insurance contributions going.

You might find that you eventually spend quite a bit of time out of paid employment in which case the extra years contributions to your state pension that the child benefit brings will be very helpful to your future self