Yet another State Pension query

ExpatForLife

Hi all. My family relocated to the UK in the fall of 2015 for my work. I’ve been working full time, my husband has been taking care of the children. We’ve never claimed child benefits as my salary was over the maximum so he didn’t accrue any credits.

Now that we’ve decided to settle here, we’re looking into starting to pay voluntary contributions for him, including for the years we’ve missed. Given his age the benefit would be small but still seems worth it as the benefit over the long run is more than the cost of the contributions.

Here is the question: he will reach state pension age 2 months before we hit the 10th anniversary of when we moved here. So does that mean that there is no point as there is no way to hit 10 years of contributions? Or is that first year considered an entire year that we can fill in?

Thanks

Dazed_and_C0nfused

We’ve never claimed child benefits as my salary was over the maximum so he didn’t accrue any credits.

Not sure what you mean by this?  

There is no limit I'm aware of for getting credits.  Or for being paid it - that would be personal choice if you didn't want it and to then have to pay it back a year or three later.

Are you getting credits and payment (of Child Benefit) mixed up?

When exactly did you arrive in the UK and what month/year does he reach SPA? 

ExpatForLife

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

We’ve never claimed child benefits as my salary was over the maximum so he didn’t accrue any credits.

Not sure what you mean by this?  

There is no limit I'm aware of for getting credits.  Or for being paid it - that would be personal choice if you didn't want it and to then have to pay it back a year or three later.

Are you getting credits and payment (of Child Benefit) mixed up?

When exactly did you arrive in the UK and what month/year does he reach SPA? 

He never registered for child benefits. My understanding (which may be incorrect) is that if he had he would have accrued Class 3 credits automatically.

We arrived November 2015 and he reaches SPA in July 2025.

QrizB

You can make back-payments for missed years, can he get enough of those paid to qualify - you can go back 6 years?

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/who-can-pay-voluntary-contributions

ExpatForLife

QrizB said:

You can make back-payments for missed years, can he get enough of those paid to qualify - you can go back 6 years?

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/who-can-pay-voluntary-contributions

But I don’t think we can pay for years before we lived in the UK, right? And we will fall a few months short unless we can pay for a full year when we moved midway. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

We’ve never claimed child benefits as my salary was over the maximum so he didn’t accrue any credits.

Not sure what you mean by this?  

There is no limit I'm aware of for getting credits.  Or for being paid it - that would be personal choice if you didn't want it and to then have to pay it back a year or three later.

Are you getting credits and payment (of Child Benefit) mixed up?

When exactly did you arrive in the UK and what month/year does he reach SPA? 

He never registered for child benefits. My understanding (which may be incorrect) is that if he had he would have accrued Class 3 credits automatically.

We arrived November 2015 and he reaches SPA in July 2025.

That is 10 different tax years before the tax year he reaches SPA.

Even if you were earning too much to be able to ultimately keep any Child Benefit (plenty get it and pay it back 2-3 years later as it is an opportunity to earn at HMRC's expenses in the interim) then registering for Child Benefit would allow credits to be accrued.

If the High Income Child Benefit Charge was the reason for not applying for Child Benefit then it may be worth contacting HMRC Child Benefit section to see if a retrospective claim can be made.  If you wanted cash then I think a 3 month limit applies but not sure about credits.

This helpsheet will be worth a read.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-credits-for-adults-who-care-for-a-child-under-12-fact-sheet/specified-adult-childcare-credits-fact-sheet

ExpatForLife

Thanks - I think we may need to call the NI office to figure this out.

jamesd

Do you still have children within the child benefit age range (up to 12)? If yes, is he or are you now registered for child benefit so he can get NI credits for it towards his state pension even if it's not being paid? If you were registered the credits can be transferred to him. Register and waive payment is how you're supposed to do it if you want to avoid the child benefit tax charge but still want credits.

Last I knew HMRC was refusing to allow backdating of child benefit claims by more than three months but it's worth checking with the child benefit office to confirm this since there's a chance that you might be able to get credits at no cost for him.

You can't get the year in which you reach your state pension age to count so ten years under current rules must be achieved excluding that one. But ten years was introduced replacing one and it can change again, so get at least the maximum unpaid bits he can get. The year in which you moved here can count even if it was only for a day in that year.

I suggest that he contacts the National Insurance Contributions - International Casework Team to see whether anything can be done about years before he moved to the UK.

Work in some countries does count towards the ten years for qualifying for the UK state pension:

"Your UK State Pension if you've lived or worked abroad

Your UK State Pension will be based on your UK National Insurance record. You usually need 10 years of UK National Insurance contributions to be eligible for the new State Pension.

You may be able to use time spent abroad to make up the 10 qualifying years. This is most likely if you’ve lived or worked in:

the EEA

Gibraltar

Switzerland

certain countries that have a social security agreement with the UK

Example:

You have seven qualifying years from the UK on your National Insurance record when you reach State Pension age.

You worked in an EEA country for 16 years and paid contributions to that country’s state pension.

You will meet the minimum qualifying years to get the new State Pension because of the time you worked overseas. Your new State Pension amount will only be based on the seven years of National Insurance contributions you made in the UK."

Given that, contacting the international casework team seems like a good move.

ExpatForLife

jamesd said:

Do you still have children within the child benefit age range (up to 12)? If yes, is he or are you now registered for child benefit so he can get NI credits for it towards his state pension even if it's not being paid? If you were registered the credits can be transferred to him. Register and waive payment is how you're supposed to do it if you want to avoid the child benefit tax charge but still want credits.

Last I knew HMRC was refusing to allow backdating of child benefit claims by more than three months but it's worth checking with the child benefit office to confirm this since there's a chance that you might be able to get credits at no cost for him.

You can't get the year in which you reach your state pension age to count so ten years under current rules must be achieved excluding that one. But ten years was introduced replacing one and it can change again, so get at least the maximum unpaid bits he can get. The year in which you moved here can count even if it was only for a day in that year.

I suggest that he contacts the National Insurance Contributions - International Casework Team to see whether anything can be done about years before he moved to the UK.

Work in some countries does count towards the ten years for qualifying for the UK state pension:

"Your UK State Pension if you've lived or worked abroad

Your UK State Pension will be based on your UK National Insurance record. You usually need 10 years of UK National Insurance contributions to be eligible for the new State Pension.

You may be able to use time spent abroad to make up the 10 qualifying years. This is most likely if you’ve lived or worked in:

the EEA

Gibraltar

Switzerland

certain countries that have a social security agreement with the UK

Example:

You have seven qualifying years from the UK on your National Insurance record when you reach State Pension age.

You worked in an EEA country for 16 years and paid contributions to that country’s state pension.

You will meet the minimum qualifying years to get the new State Pension because of the time you worked overseas. Your new State Pension amount will only be based on the seven years of National Insurance contributions you made in the UK."

Given that, contacting the international casework team seems like a good move.

Thanks for this - the international casework link is exactly what my I need.