In this section:
- Does Child Benefit affect your other benefits?
- Child Benefit - other benefits you might qualify for
- How claiming Child Benefit can protect your State Pension
- What are tax credits and who qualifies?
- Guardian's Allowance
How claiming Child Benefit can protect your State Pension
If you're at home looking after children, or you're a working parent who doesn't earn enough to pay National Insurance contributions (NICs), there's a scheme to protect your State Pension. Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) can protect your State Pension entitlement if you get Child Benefit.
How HRP works
HRP isn't a benefit, it's a way of safeguarding how much State Pension you'll get.
Your State Pension is based on the number of 'qualifying years' you build up during your working life. A qualifying year is one when you earn enough to pay NICs. So if you're not working or not earning enough to pay NICs your pension could suffer.
HRP stops you losing out if you're caring for children. It does this by reducing the number of qualifying years you need to get a State Pension.
Each full tax year when you get Child Benefit for a child under 16 reduces the number of qualifying years you need. But for a full basic State Pension, HRP can't reduce the number of qualifying years below 20.
HRP - an example
Normally you need 39 qualifying years to get a full basic State Pension. But if you spent five years at home caring for your child and you got Child Benefit for five full tax years, you'd only need 34 qualifying years.
Changes after 6 April 2010
From 6 April 2010 HRP will be replaced by weekly credits for parents and carers. Any years of HRP before this date will be turned into qualifying years if you reach State Pension age any time after 5 April 2010. Credits will automatically count for both basic State Pension and additional State Pension if you get Child Benefit for a child under 12.
Who can qualify for pension protection?
Currently only the person who claims and receives Child Benefit can get HRP.
So if you're married, in a civil partnership or living with your partner, it's important to decide together whose pension most needs protecting. The person you decide on is the one who should claim Child Benefit. It's likely to be the one who stays at home to look after the children.
If your partner has been getting Child Benefit but your pension isn't protected
If you reach State Pension age any time after 6 April 2008, and you find out that you have not been awarded HRP because your partner was getting Child Benefit but you were the one staying at home to care for the children, you can apply to have HRP transferred to you. You can only do this if your partner does not need HRP because they have been:
- paying enough NICs each year to protect their pension
- getting Child Benefit
You will however need to show that during the year or years you want to get HRP you were:
- living with your partner
- sharing the responsibility for your child with your partner
If you want to get HRP backdated and you haven't been getting Child Benefit, you'll need to make a separate claim on form CF411 Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP).
You can get form CF411 and guidance notes from any of the following:
- our website, using the links below
- your local Jobcentre Plus
- your local Social Security or Jobs and Benefit Offices if you're in Northern Ireland
Download guidance notes to help you fill in the HRP claim form CF411 (PDF 211K)
Contact Jobcentre Plus on the Jobcentre Plus website
How you qualify for pension protection
You should get HRP automatically if both of the following apply:
- you get Child Benefit in your name for a child under 16
- you've given the Child Benefit Office your National Insurance number
Periods of Child Benefit that count for pension protection
You can get HRP for whole tax years when you get Child Benefit for a child under 16. Parts of a tax year and tax years when there was a break in your Child Benefit don't qualify.
A tax year runs from 6 April to the following 5 April.
If you have more than one child
If you've got more than one child under 16, it may be worth both parents claiming Child Benefit for different children. Doing this could protect both of your pensions.
It's only worth doing this if neither of you is building up qualifying years through work or National Insurance credits.
If you get Child Benefit for a child under six
If you get Child Benefit for a child under six, you can automatically build up your entitlement to an additional State Pension. You get this on top of your basic State Pension.
If you get Child Benefit for a child aged six or over with a long-term illness or disability
If you get Child Benefit for a child aged six or over with a long-term illness or disability, you can also build up your entitlement to an additional State Pension. But you'll need to make a separate claim on form CF411.
You can get form CF411 and guidance notes from any of the following:
- our website, using the links below
- your local Jobcentre Plus
- your local Social Security or Jobs and Benefit Offices if you're in Northern Ireland
Get the HRP claim form CF411 to print out (PDF 156K)
Download guidance notes to help you fill in the HRP claim form CF411 (PDF K)
Contact Jobcentre Plus on the Jobcentre Plus website
If your circumstances change
If you claim Child Benefit and your circumstances change, it could be better for your partner to start claiming instead. This might be worthwhile if it meant they'd benefit from HRP.
Your partner, or former partner, must meet the qualifying conditions for Child Benefit.
Plan the change carefully. You only get HRP for whole tax years, not parts of a year.
Example - switching Child Benefit to a partner when circumstances change
If you and your partner both worked and you got Child Benefit for your child, it might not make any difference who actually claimed Child Benefit. But if your partner stopped working or their earnings went down so they weren't paying enough National Insurance, it could make sense for them to claim Child Benefit instead.
While you kept working and building up your own pension entitlement, your partner could protect their pension through HRP.
Check if you qualify for Child Benefit
How to transfer Child Benefit payments
You can let us know if you want to transfer Child Benefit in a number of ways. You can tell us online using the link below. Or you can call the Child Benefit Helpline on Tel 0845 302 1444 or textphone Tel 0845 302 1474. It's open between 8.00 am and 8.00 pm, seven days a week, except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
If your preferred language is Welsh you can call on Tel 0845 302 1489, and if you're calling from outside the UK Tel + 44 161 210 3086.
Your partner will also need to fill in a Child Benefit claim form.
When you can transfer Child Benefit
You can tell us at any time if you want to transfer your Child Benefit to your partner. But if you want your partner to get pension protection you will need to tell us between 7 April and 30 June at the latest. If you tell us after that date, they will lose out on a year's worth of pension protection.
Your partner will also need to send the Child Benefit claim form to the Child Benefit Office by 30 June if they want to get a year's worth of pension protection.
Let us know if you want to transfer your Child Benefit to your partner
More useful links
Find out more about understanding the basic State Pension on the Directgov website
Find out more about understanding the additional State Pension on the Directgov website
