Please help - too many options!

DIYBaldyman

I'm surprised your partner has so poor a NI record - did she claim child benefit while she was bringing up the kids? She should have been credited for those years...

Pip895 - We had no idea that any Child-Benefit claim years were automatically paidup - the 15 years was our (as accurate as possible) 'guesstimate' due to how many years she had / hadn't worked for. Having now gone through the process of checking properly, we have found that all of those non-working / Child-Benefit claiming years are indeed fully paid & that my wife has only 3 years left to pay, with our youngest just turning 16 & still having 2 years of CB left to claim, so not looking too bad after-all. Thank you for the information.

swindiff

If you are planning on taking a lump sum at 55, make sure you only take the 25% tax free. As soon as you take any more than that you trigger the MPAA (Money Purchase annual Allowance) limiting your pension contributions to just £4k a year from then on.

cloud_dog

DIYBaldyman wrote: »

Having now gone through the process of checking properly, we have found that all of those non-working / Child-Benefit claiming years are indeed fully paid & that my wife has only 3 years left to pay, with our youngest just turning 16 & still having 2 years of CB left to claim, so not looking too bad after-all. Thank you for the information.

I'm not an expert in this but, I believe you need to tell the Child Benefit office that your child is staying in education/training at 16 in order to continue to claim/receive CB.

bluenose1

DIYBaldyman wrote: »

Pip895 - We had no idea that any Child-Benefit claim years were automatically paidup - the 15 years was our (as accurate as possible) 'guesstimate' due to how many years she had / hadn't worked for. Having now gone through the process of checking properly, we have found that all of those non-working / Child-Benefit claiming years are indeed fully paid & that my wife has only 3 years left to pay, with our youngest just turning 16 & still having 2 years of CB left to claim, so not looking too bad after-all. Thank you for the information.

National Insurance Credit for child benefit is only until child is 12, so it will be your wife's current earnings that will get her any future credits.
If your wife earns less than £12,500 per annum you should consider transferring Marriage Tax Allowance as it allows her to transfer £1,250 of her personal allowance to partner.