UPDATE: |Grandparents told they could boost State Pension by £1,000s with one little-known trick News

They could boost their State Pension if they helped care for a young family member

Grandparents have been told they might be able to boost their State Pension by £1,000s if they cared for a young family member while the child’s parents were at work.

If, before reaching State Pension age, you cared for a grandchild or other young relative while their parents were at work you could be eligible for childcare credit – a little-known way to boost your national insurance record.

Your national insurance record is what dictates your State Pension entitlement – if you have a full national insurance record then you will receive the full State Pension amount which currently stands at £230.35 a week.

To get the full State Pension amount you need around 35 qualifying NI years – which you can earn by working, looking after children, or while on certain benefits.

In general you can plug any gaps you have in your NI qualifying years, to make sure you get the full pension amount, by buying more credits.

But grandparents may also be able to make up some of these ‘qualifying years’ – if they don’t already have the full 35 years – by applying for childcare NI credits.

Money Saving Expert has issued a reminder on social media, saying: “If you’ve looked after a young family member while their parents were at work, there’s a little-known trick that could boost your State Pension by £1,000s”.

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It also offered a step by step guide on how to claim these credits, covering four main points. The first of which entails checking your current State Pension entitlement.

If all of your NI years are complete there is no need to worry about buying or claiming extra credits. But if you have any incomplete years looking into childcare credits, it could be a good way to boost your future income.

To qualify for childcare credits you must have cared for a family member under the age of 12 before you reached State Pension age – currently 66 for men and women. But if you used to care for them or they are 12 or older you may still be able to backdate your claim to 2011.

It is important to check that the child’s parents are registered to receive child benefit, even if they are not claiming it. This is because the credit that the parent would have been able to claim through child benefit transfers over to the grandparent if the parent earns enough from employment and doesn’t need the NI credit anymore.

There is only one credit available for each child benefit recipient, though, so if two grandparents are looking after a relative’s child, only one will be able to claim the credit.

If they also look after another relative’s children – i.e. two different child benefit recipients – then both grandparents could receive credits.

Finally, you must apply for these credits on the gov.uk website to transfer them over from the child’s parent or guardian. Both the child’s guardian and whoever is applying for the credit will have to sign off on the form.

You can apply for these credits from 2011 onwards. So you could boost your entitlement by backdating your claim, as long as it wasn’t before 2011 and you were under state pension age when you did the childcare.