Martin Lewis issues state pension warning as 200,000 miss out on ‘thousands’ of pounds | Personal Finance | Finance

Martin Lewis issued an urgent warning during the Money Show tonight as hundreds of thousands of Britons could be losing significant sums of their state pension.

The Money Savings Expert founder told viewers to check the partner claiming child benefit to ensure they receive the full amount of the state pension.

Mr Lewis said: “There are 200,000 of you out there who are missing out on thousands, if not thousands of pounds of state pension because the wrong partner in your relationship is getting National Insurance credits.”

The amount a person receives in their state pension is based on the number of qualifying National Insurance (NI) years they have. People get the qualifying years by working and usually need about 35 years to get the full amount.

However, people who are not working due to circumstances such as raising children, or being disabled, can get credits instead to entitle them to the full state pension payment.

Mr Lewis said: “National insurance credits are due to those who are not working or earning under £123 a week for childcare.”

But for many people in those circumstances, Mr Lewis said it is typical for their partner, who is working, to complete the childcare claim instead of the non-working person.

Mr Lewis said: “But the working partner already gets national insurance credits because they are working. So you want the non-working partner to be getting the credit, so they need to be the person claiming child benefit.”

Mr Lewis said: “The Gov.UK form is F411A. It’s really important to check who gets child benefit. If you’re not working, it should be in your name if you can. It could that there would be some domestic abuse issues where it’s not appropriate – but in most cases.”

One viewer who followed the tip in the past wrote into the show to share the success. After thanking Mr Lewis for helping his husband top up his state pension “for free”, the viewer said: “We applied for a transfer of eight years’ worth that I got by claiming child benefit while working . Our claim was successful. We thought about paying to increase his contributions but he couldn’t afford it. It will make a big difference for us.”

Doing some quick maths on how much the audience would add to their pension by claiming eight years’ worth of credits, Mr Lewis said: “Here’s the maths. Eight years – each of those increases your pension by £300 a year. So that’s it, an increase of £2,400 a year on the final state pension.

“If you live 20 years, that’s £48,000 extra state pension. This is no small thing I’m talking about. 48 grand.”

People who wouldn’t normally qualify for child benefit because their partner earns £60,000 or more can claim it anyway but refuse the money, to ensure the non-working partner gets National Insurance Credits and a pension full state yet.

Mr Lewis said: “Not many claim child benefit if one earns £60,000 or more. Because one partner earns over 60 you are not entitled to child benefit – or you can get child benefit, but then the same amount is deducted from you in tax.

“But if the other partner is not working, they should be claiming child benefit to get the National Insurance credit. So what the other person should do is claim it. That would ensure you get National Insurance credit.”

Mr Lewis said: “Two important checks at Gov.uk you should all do. Check your national insurance record to see if you’re missing any years, and then check your state pension forecast to see if you’re on track to get the full state pension.

“If not, and you’re not entitled to free years, you’re able to buy back years that have gone by, and, you know, for a payment of up to £800, it could be worth £5,000 over your state. pension life.”

The Martin Lewis Money Show is broadcast on ITV every Tuesday at 8pm.