Wife Missing NI due to High Earning Spouse

PeterC365

I'm trying to find out if there's any way of back-claiming the missing years my wife has on her NI.  As I was a higher earner when we had our children we never registered for child benefit - not knowing she would lose NI credits.  Can this be fixed? 

calcotti

I read somewhere that government have said they will enable this but i can't see anything official yet.

(What you could have done is for her to claim Child Benefit and ask not to be paid be would mean she gone the NI without you having to give the tax - but many people didn't know.)

Dazed_and_C0nfused

PeterC365 said:

I'm trying to find out if there's any way of back-claiming the missing years my wife has on her NI.  As I was a higher earner when we had our children we never registered for child benefit - not knowing she would lose NI credits.  Can this be fixed? 

If you read the notes here, particularly page 2 it looks like she may be ok.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-credits-for-parents-and-carers-cf411a

Obviously for very high earners it's simpler not to receive Child Benefit but the other option would be (for her) to get the Child Benefit, treat it as an interest free loan from HMRC and then (you) pay it back via Self Assessment in due course.

kaMelo

Previous post by @TimeLord1 removed so removed my reply.

sheramber

But the OP's wife has not been employed so your draft is not much help.

calcotti

TimeLord1 said:

Now removed I didn't see that they hadn't been employed before, possibly the only way is to pay a sum to them that covers the gap but I can't see it being straightforward. 

Which isn’t correct. It may be possible to claim the credits backdated as already touched on this thread. It helps to read the thread before replying.

p00hsticks

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

PeterC365 said:

I'm trying to find out if there's any way of back-claiming the missing years my wife has on her NI.  As I was a higher earner when we had our children we never registered for child benefit - not knowing she would lose NI credits.  Can this be fixed? 

If you read the notes here, particularly page 2 it looks like she may be ok.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-credits-for-parents-and-carers-cf411a

Obviously for very high earners it's simpler not to receive Child Benefit but the other option would be (for her) to get the Child Benefit, treat it as an interest free loan from HMRC and then (you) pay it back via Self Assessment in due course.

I'm don't think that that form is much help, as my understanding is that it's only for use when the parents have actually previously registered for Child Benefit, but want to transfer the associated credits from one parent to the other or belive the credits are missing. 

It sounds as if in the OP's case they simply didn't bother to register as they thought they wouldn't be any better off  financially. What I think they should have done in these circumstances, as calcotti says,  is registered (in the name of the non-working parent) but indicated that the only wanted to receive the associated NI credits and not any actual payment, which I understand has been an option since the Higher Income charge was introduced. 

If the youngest child is still under 12 then they should do that now to at least get credits gonig forward - I belevie they can backdate the claim for three months. 

calcotti

p00hsticks said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

PeterC365 said:

I'm trying to find out if there's any way of back-claiming the missing years my wife has on her NI.  As I was a higher earner when we had our children we never registered for child benefit - not knowing she would lose NI credits.  Can this be fixed? 

If you read the notes here, particularly page 2 it looks like she may be ok.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-credits-for-parents-and-carers-cf411a

Obviously for very high earners it's simpler not to receive Child Benefit but the other option would be (for her) to get the Child Benefit, treat it as an interest free loan from HMRC and then (you) pay it back via Self Assessment in due course.

I'm don't think that that form is much help, as my understanding is that it's only for use when the parents have actually previously registered for Child Benefit, but want to transfer the associated credits from one parent to the other or belive the credits are missing. 

But, as in my first reply, I read somewhere that the government said that they will allow people to claim retrospectively to take into account that many people were deterred from claiming CB due to the HIBC. However I can't find anything to confirm his.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

calcotti said:

p00hsticks said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

PeterC365 said:

I'm trying to find out if there's any way of back-claiming the missing years my wife has on her NI.  As I was a higher earner when we had our children we never registered for child benefit - not knowing she would lose NI credits.  Can this be fixed? 

If you read the notes here, particularly page 2 it looks like she may be ok.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-credits-for-parents-and-carers-cf411a

Obviously for very high earners it's simpler not to receive Child Benefit but the other option would be (for her) to get the Child Benefit, treat it as an interest free loan from HMRC and then (you) pay it back via Self Assessment in due course.

I'm don't think that that form is much help, as my understanding is that it's only for use when the parents have actually previously registered for Child Benefit, but want to transfer the associated credits from one parent to the other or belive the credits are missing. 

But, as in my first reply, I read somewhere that the government said that they will allow people to claim retrospectively to take into account that many people were deterred from claiming CB due to the HIBC. However I can't find anything to confirm his.

It was mentioned on tax legislation day.

National Insurance credit changes section refers.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-administration-and-maintenance-summary-spring-2023/summary-of-tax-administration-and-maintenance-spring-2023

calcotti

Thanks Dazed_and_confused. Glad to know I didn’t imagine it!