Grandparents who look after their grandchildren missing out on £231 NI credits every year

Thousands of grandparents who are helping bringing up their grandchildren could be missing out on free £231 a year in National Insurance credits.

Under the rules of “grandparent credit”, when a mother goes to work after child birth she can sign a form to state the grandparents are looking after the child to receive £231 in national insurance credits each year in return which will help with building up your pension.

A public report was made that the amount of people claiming this credit was “low” and thousands of people are missing out on this. It was found that just less than 1500 grandparents and other family members had benefited from this scheme.

Grandparents who give up their job to look after their grandchild could otherwise be losing out on their state pension rights. 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 one 35th of the full rate of the state pension or £231 per year.

The application form can be found on the GOV.UK website.