National Insurance Credits - what happens after Children hit 12 years old

rsha

Hi everyone, question about NI credits. My wife stays at home and does not work and we noticed recently that her national insurance credits (via Child Benefit), had stopped being applied to tax years. After research, I realised that you only get the credits for children under 12. So my question is what happens when your children turn 12? Although, you still received child benefit, you no longer receive NI credits, but if you choose to stay at home to look after the children, what do you do about the NI contributions. 

p00hsticks

If you want/need them to boost your state pension then you would either need to earn enough via employment or self employment to get NI credits, be in receipt of a qualifying benefit such as Universal Credit, or make voluntary contributions. 

Has she checked her state pension forecast ?
Check your State Pension forecast - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

rsha

p00hsticks said:

If you want/need them to boost your state pension then you would either need to earn enough via employment or self employment to get NI credits, be in receipt of a qualifying benefit such as Universal Credit, or make voluntary contributions. 

Has she checked her state pension forecast ?
Check your State Pension forecast - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Thank you for the reply. I guess they expect that you would go back to work at 12 as they go off to secondary school. She has checked and its the years since turning 12 that were missing. Its only a couple but I know we can pay contributions to top up.