Grandparents helping out with childcare miss out on NI credits

Royal London FOI request reveals

Victoria McKeever
clock • 2 min read

Grandparents who help out with childcare and so enable their daughters to go back to work are almost certainly missing out on hundreds of pounds a year in state pension rights, a freedom of information (FOI) request by Royal London has revealed.

Under current rules, if a mother goes back to work after the birth of a child, she can sign a form that allows a grandparent - or other family member - to receive National Insurance (NI) credits for looking after the child. A grandparent who gives up work to look after the grandchild would otherwise be losing out on valuable state pension rights. Royal London head of policy Steve Webb explained: "If a working-age grandparent misses out on one year of state pension rights because they are spending time with a grandchild instead of doing paid work, this would cost them 1/35th of the full r...

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