Childcare NI Credits

[CatcheeMonkee]

Whilst commenting on the Class 2 NI contributions thread I was reminded to sort out my own NI gaps, hopefully for free. For the last few years, I've been caring for a grandchild (under 12 years old) so that mum can go to work. I've not been working myself so have not been contributing, though I have known about NI Childcare Credits and planned to apply. The system makes use of the fact that mum has been credited with NI contributions both by working and also because she's been getting Child Benefit (Family Allowance of old). The spare contribution can be diverted to help a family carer. You can backdate to 6th April 2011 but because of recent State Pension changes I only needed to apply from 6th April 2016.

Straight forward, though I did phone to speak to someone because there have been just a few weeks where we've holidayed separately and wondered if I had to track down the exact dates. I was told that most people in this situation simply apply for the full years and that's what he would do himself (just what I wanted to hear) ... So the filled-in form was printed, signed by both me and my daughter, and posted this afternoon.

Hopefully, this will help someone.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... fact-sheet