Is 'housekeeping' classed as income?

I was/am concerned about financial abuse in all honesty and I think if a parent makes a decision to opt out of paid employment to look after children it is always sensible to discuss with your spouse that they will top up your national insurance contribution, this is more important for young parents now who my not be claiming child benefit (former family allowance) as the NI contribution stops when your youngest is 12 if you not qualify for the benefit.

hope 2021, you just tell the HMRC you have been financially been supported by your partner. They may ask him to make a statement to verify it. We have to do this everyone year with student finance! I hope you are ok

Katie59

Is housekeeping income ?.

If you are not married and you are being given more than your personal allowance (£10K or so) in theory it would be taxable, because your partner might be seen as paying for a service.

This is the situation I am in I get a monthly allowance part goes on housekeeping rest remains in my account.

But did you declare it for tax and NI purposes?

hope Log into Government Gateway and get a pension forecast.

If you paid NICs on your self-employed income, those years will count. Make sure they're complete years. If they're not, it might be worth paying for the gaps.

As others have said, if you have children, you should be eligible for Home Responsibilities Protection for the some of the years.

PS. I'm fairly sure that housekeeping doesn't count as income.

hope2021 You said you've been told you only have 2 years left - I'm so sorry, that must be very hard knowledge to come to terms with. There will be benefits available to you due to serious ill health: please, please contact Citizens Advice to find out where you stand. When my lovely late husband was suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis he was able to claim Attendance Allowance, for example. It's definitely worth your while making enquiries.

NellG

I was always under the impression that women's liberation intended that women should be free to choose their path in life and not have it dictated to them. Yet here we are in 2021, with women questioning other women's life choices...

????

M0nica

Has no one else taken on board that this lady may be terminally ill?

That was mentioned several posts ago, and others have responded to it since .

I hadn’t realised that when I posted about contributions - I thought the OP had 2 years to state pension age. I still believe that the principle of paying in before you take out is fair, but if the OP is ill, it changes the thread altogether and I am not sure what she is asking.

OP - why have HMRC asked what you have been living on? That has nothing to do with pensions as far as I can see. Are your children giving you money to live on now? If so, I don’t think it will count as income unless you are also claiming benefits (invalidity?) in which case yes, means testing will kick in. Where is your partner in all of this? Has he stopped providing for you?

There is a lot about this situation that appears unclear, so it is difficult to know what to suggest.

When you say that children looking after parents is the norm, I wonder if you are from a cultural group that expects this to happen? If so, again that changes the parameters. I think we need more information.

Forgive me for being blunt, but why do you assume your children ‘will look after you always’?

I don’t understand why at 66 (10 years younger than me) you talk as if 30 years ago was in the dark ages.

Hope2021...... I'm confused at the message you sent to PaddyAnne, as you did say your children would look after you. Your reply seemed somewhat garbled, I couldn't make sense of it. However I think your children would become somewhat resentful in future years at having to fully support you financially. It could be a base for great friction in your family.

Has no one else taken on board that this lady may be terminally ill?

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Hope2121. I too was a stay at home mum like you and never returned to work as my eldest child had ME/CFS from age 12. It was a very challenging time and hard work. Alot of my friends also were housewife's ( in the 90's) so not that unusual. I now help care for my parents in their late 80's and my grandchildren but as far as I know I do get a state pension when old enough , expecting it to be small

The way our pension system works is that if your income is low and you have less than £28k (?) you get all the benefits whether you have contributed or not in way of pension credits. Everyone gets the same. Except if you are on pension credits you also don’t pay council tax ... we don’t have a contribution based system.

Are you meaning the "support" you receive from AC that may be classed as income. If so it will depends on how much you receive and how often. As a person with adult children I am allowed to gift £3000 a year with no issues about tax. Don't knowhow this would work the other way round.. For your pension you should contact pensions agency for a forecast. I am not shocked that you stayed at home for children, often think children wouldn't have so many issues nowadays if they weren't farmed out so early in life.

Hope2021 I hope some of the answers on here have helped you. I also really hope that your final 2 years are filled with peace and love.

You will get a pension, as others have said you will be credited with NI for the years you claimed Child Benefit (ie until the youngest was 18) and you can also make top-up NI payments now to increase your pension. Apologies if others have said this, I've not been able to read all the comments.

AGREED. I wouldn't dream of expecting my children to look after me. I brought them up to me independant and to work for what they want so I would be a bit of a hypocrite if I didn't follow suit. I know they would help if it was really necessary but I wouldn't ask.

I stayed home to bring up the children in the seventies and early eighties - I was happy to do that as I wanted to be with them, but also OH had a demanding job with very long hours - often working on Saturdays too - and there wouldn't have been much family life for the children if I wasn't there either. I was told that qualification for child benefit meant your NI contributions were paid. when I got close to retirement (by then working full time ) I had a letter asking if I wanted to make up my contributions for the years I spent at home - there was a shortfall. Certain that this would be hundreds of pounds at least, I enquired and the payment needed was about £65. It might be worth your enquiring about this hope2021 - you might be pleasantly surprised.
I can't see why some people feel 'shocked' at women staying home to bring up children - it's a personal choice, I was lucky enough to be able to do it, but we were hardly rich and went without some luxuries - didn't have a car for example.

Talk to the pensions people. They'll want to know about your money simply because you won't be showing up on any system. You'll have some stamps due to Home Responsibility and you may be entitled to income support. Are you still living with your partner? If so, he will be able to claim you as a dependent and will get extra state pension. You must claim what you're entitled to. You maybe didn't go out to a job but bringing up children and caring for a home is still work. I doubt you were a lady of leisure who sat at home all day and had staff to care for the house and children.

Hope2021, do I understand from your comment ^ I have it on good authority I have about 2 years left. So it shouldn't be to much of a drain on them both.^ That you are terminally ill?

Presumably that is what you mean when you say you will not be claiming a pension. I am so sorry. What a time for you to suddenly have the tax people chasing you.

But to answer the question the asked. No, housekeeping will not be treated as income, even though you are not married. because although not married, you are living in a domestic household and the money your receive is spent on that household. So that is one worry off your plate.

No. Housekeeping money given to you from your partner's earnings is not classed as income.
You need to contact Citizens Advice to see what you are entitled to. And claim it! But I get the jmpression you are very ill? In which case I'm sure your children will take care of you.

TrendyNannie6

While you are saying you were a stay at home mum and not wanting to claim a pension that’s totally your choice, but what I’m more shocked about is your children will look after you always, I take it you mean financially!I wouldn’t expect any of my AC to contribute to me and look after me always, that’s not why I had my children, Are you in the U.K., I’m very surprised that you expect your children to do this, I wonder what their wives / husbands think

Totally agree here. I don't think my children would stand by and watch me struggle but I didn't have my children as a form of insurance against old age and infirmity.

Dear Hope, I was like you and stopped working in 1978 when my twins were born. I was 32.
Looking at mums nowadays it seems a lot easier to go out to work with the little ones at nursery, school, etc.

So when I wanted to claim my pension, I had some years built up from the age of 17 - 32. I was then given the option of buying some extra years which it cost me about £4000.
I wasn't allowed to buy the full amount of missing years.
State Pension is inadequate to live any sort of life. But it's better than nothing.
I'm shocked that some on here find it strange that some of us wanted to be around for our kids. Not to mention aged parents who needed a huge amount of help coinciding with my little ones being adults!

And no housekeeping is not an income if you haven’t paid any tax or national insurance. You living in cloud cuckoo land.
Sorry to be blunt.

TrendyNannie is right. Don’t bank on your kids. And what would happen if they lost their jobs. For new state pension you need to have paid a minimum of 10 years NI payments. If you haven’t paid that you will get nothing. This changed to stop people coming from overseas and claiming our benefits. If you’ve given nothing then don’t expect anything. You’ve lived a very privileged life if you haven’t worked.

In answer to your OP if your partner (not married it says) paid you over your Personal Allowance for you to spend on yourself, not for household costs, then that should have been declared as income and NHI,as it was then , and taxes would have been paid. I’m assuming that this wasn’t the case so you won’t have built up any Pensions from your time at home.

All you can tell the HMRC is the truth.

I have it on good authority I have about 2 years left.
If you are in poor health the perhaps a talk with Citizens Advice?
There is support available that isn't contribution based.

Best wishes.