Specified Adult Childcare Credit

I retired at the age of 58 and foolishly had no idea regarding NI and missing years. I already thought I had enough to provide a full pension. My daughter recommended applying for free child credits, which I did as I was caring initially for 2 GC two days per week. As two more GC arrived I did the same again. The difference it made towards my final state pension was rewarding, an extra 6 years of NI which helped enormously to boost those contracted out years I had too. Well worth doing.

Thanks Alita. Will have a look.

silverlining48 The form is very simple, basically, your name, address and NI number, the Child Benefit recipients name, address and NI number and the name and date of birth of the child. Then the period of care - for this, I put 6/4/2018 to 5/4/2019. No actual details of care are required.

silverlining48 For the grandchild I claimed for, I looked after him 1 full day and 1 morning a week. I'm going to put in another claim for the year he started school, in this case it will be for 2 days after school, and 1 day a week in the school holidays. One reason that I didn't claim years ago, was because I thought it had to be full time care, but actually, there is no minimum amount.

Alita what a wonderful bonus.
I also looked after gc for 10 years but only once or twice a Week. Long days though. With an hours travel on top.
How much time did you spend looking after your gc.?

I had a letter from the Pension service/ DWP suggesting I might have been underpaid but I cannot see where, nor have I any evidence to provide. As it was a generic letter, it may not be applicable to me personally.
DWP admits some pensioners have been underpaid. It really shouldn’t be up to us to provide evidence, provided we gave all the information requested when we claimed. I do recall getting some credits for when I was at home with young children.

alita

I've been retired for just over 10 years and provided childcare for my grandchildren in all that time. I started receiving the State Pension in March 23. I recently realised I might be eligible for Specified Adult Childcare Credit, as I am missing some NI years due to being 'contracted out' whilst working in the public sector.

I dipped my toe in water my claiming for year 2018/19 for my eldest granddaughter, and within a few weeks had a letter to say I had been successful and that my pension would increase by about £25 for each pay period starting in August.

However, when I checked my bank account last night, DWP had deposited £405 into it! I can't think of any reason why, unless the credits have been back dated to my official retirement date.

Before I spend all day on hold to DWP, can anyone explain this payment for me? We all love a windfall, but unexplained money makes me anxious!

Nice. I should hope this information is widely available!

This is brilliant honestly, we should be rewarding grandparents who help their families in employment

I am not due my State Pension for another couple of years. I claimed SACC for the couple of years that I cared for DGS1 and now have full NI contributions for the maximum pension.
As long as the parent was working and claiming child benefit a grandparent can have the NI contributions. The form is relatively straightforward.

So glad you are getting this, and hope it prompts other GNers to check if they can claim.
It is quite specific - you can't claim if you already receive a full State Pension, but many older women missed out on that.

Merion, thank you so much for doing the numbers, this is such a nice surprise! I have other years to claim for as well!

Yes, that’s been back dated.

I think I can reconcile the £405. Some numbers rounded.

New State Pension from April 2023 was £203.85 per week.

One extra credit would give you an extra £5.82 a week (divide £203.85 by 35*) so that’s about £303 for 2023/24.

*New State Pension is based on having 35 years NIC.

New State Pension from April 2024 is £221.20. One extra credit would give you an extra £6.32 a week which is £25.28 every four weeks.

Back pension for April to July 2024, four payments £101.

I hope that makes sense.