State Pension and Child Allowance

tgon

My wife has received a letter with her calculated state pension amount for her impending “coming of age” on 6th July. There are a large number of assumptions called “what you’ve told us” and these are all correct except one. (The online invite and application asked nothing of this subject.) She received child allowance/benefit for the qualifying years from 1976 and 1978 respectively (two kids) when she raised them until schooling age. Some of those years are on her NI record as incomplete years and therefore not in any subsequent state pension calculation. If child allowance/benefit paid her stamp for those missing years is it to late to correct, if there is anything to correct anyway?

p00hsticks

I think in 1976 it would still have been family allowance, which I don't believe included any element of NI credits.

In conjunction with the introduction of child benefit in the mid/late 1970s there was Home Responsibilities Protection which - if the child benefit was in your wifes name - should autopmatically have been converted to NI credits.

https://www.gov.uk/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp 

Bear in mind that if your wife has at least 35 full year credits prior to April 2016 then another year would not impact the final amount of her pension.

xylophone

https://revenuebenefits.org.uk/child-benefit/policy/where_it_all_started/
https://www.gov.uk/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp/eligibility

squirrelpie

tgon said:

She received child allowance/benefit for the qualifying years from 1976 and 1978 respectively (two kids) when she raised them until schooling age. Some of those years are on her NI record as incomplete years and therefore not in any subsequent state pension calculation.

Which specific years?

tgon

Child 1, 1976 to 1983 then returned to work
Child 2, 1978 to 1983 then returned to work

What complicates it a little is that she was resident in Australia from 1979 to 1981, which obviously are lost years.

sheramber

Which years are incomplete ?

molerat

Did she elect to pay the married women's reduced rate NI - "small stamp" - at any time ?

What do those part filled years show as to how those weeks were funded ?

How many full years does she have ?

She needs to contact the NI helpline to query this https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/national-insurance-enquiries-for-employees-and-individuals

p00hsticks

Before getting into this any further it might be worth asking -

what is her calculated state pension amount ?

and

how many full years does she have on her record prior to 6th April 2016 ?

As, depending on the answers to these questions, missing years may not be worth pursuing ....

tgon

Getting back to family allowance/child benefit, you guys have already answered my question of which a call to the pension office confirmed. Family allowance didn’t pay NIC and it changed to HRP in 1978. Her record is correct on this it seems. Many thanks to all contributed as you pointed me in the right direction with the right information to get the answers