State Pension and Domestic Credits

Philip_Butterworth

My Wife had her first child in 1972, then had children in 1980, 1987 and 1994, so stopped receiving Child Benefit in 2010. She should have received her state pension in 2008 at age 60, but was told she did not have enough qualifying years. The maximum Domestic Credits she was given was 19.5 years, whereas surely it should have been 38 (1972 to 2010)? Can anyone throw any light on this or suggest an expert in state pensions who could clarify this.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Was Child Benefit definitely paid to her throughout the entire period?

But NI credits would have stopped in 2006 I think (when eldest child was 12).

How many qualifying years do you think were required to receive any State Pension in 2008?

p00hsticks

I'm not 100% sure what all the historic rules were, but my understanding is that a) Home Reponsibilities Protection (the forerunner to NI credits for child benefits) was only introduced in 1978 - replaced by NI credits in 2010 - and that  b) currently the NI credits associated with child benefit stop when the youngest child turns 12, even though child benefit payments continue. So together that might explain ten of the 'missing' years. Do you know which years she has been creditted for ?

The other common explanation for a shortfall often turns out to be that the child benefit was claimed by the father rather than the mother for at least some of the time.

MalMonroe

According to this government link, https://www.gov.uk/state-pension/eligibility your wife should have received some pension. 

The link also says that if you have any enquiries, please contact the Pension Service. That's probably the best thing to do as they are the experts in State pensions and your wife will be able to get all the correct info from them.

anmarj

If she paid the married woman stamp at any point then they wouldn’t count towards the state pension

molerat

For pre 2010 state pension age it was handled differently to the current method of NI credits and only reduced the number of years required to get a state pension, you still needed some paid years to get anything at all - I believe it was around 5 with maximum credits. The maximum reduction was 22 and the paid up pension years were pro rated against that new full amount. You need to check which post 1978 years are not credited - plus how many paid years she has - and go from there.  HMRC are the ones you need to speak to for missing years.

An old article https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-1616017/Womens-pensions-Home-Responsibilities-Protection.html