Retirement ‘trick’ could boost your state pension payments by £3,000 – how to claim | Personal Finance | Finance

One of the reasons why someone may be missing out on National Insurance contributions is if they are caring for a loved one.

According to research done PensionBee20 per cent of people aged 55 to 64 provide unpaid care for their grandchildren.

Therefore, thousands of future pensioners are at risk of missing out on a significant increase in their retirement pot.

To be eligible for this support, recipients must be under state pension age, be looking after a child under the age of 12 or 17 if they have a disability and live in the SAY.

It should be noted that a person can only be eligible if the child’s parent is entitled to child benefit and has a qualifying year for National Insurance without requiring the parent’s class 3 credits.

In addition, there is no minimum requirement for the number of hours of care that a claimant must have provided. However, how much a person receives depends on how long they have been caring for the child.

Hypothetically, if a grandparent had been looking after a child since 2011, which is the last year claims can be backdated, they would receive a £3,000 increase in the state pension.

Each annual credit is worth 1/35 of the state pension which comes to around £275 a year. To find out how much you will get, multiply this figure by the years you are eligible for.

Claimants can start their application using the fon the Government website.

Speaking to the SunPensionBee Public Affairs director Becky O’Connor urged people to check if they are eligible for this retirement boost.

She explained: “These grandparents play a vital role in enabling parents to work, especially amid the difficulties of finding affordable childcare. However, over time it can have a negative impact on their ability to build a pension pot.

“Therefore, it is vital that working-age grandparents who provide care for children under 12 are aware of their eligibility to claim Adult Childcare credit.”

“These are National Insurance credits that are transferred from the working parents, who are claiming child benefit, to the non-working grandparents who are looking after the children.”