Grandparent Credits: Am I entitled to financial support?
As a grandparent you may be taking care of your grandchildren whilst their parents have returned to work or you may have obtained parental responsibility for the child and given up work in the process. If this is the case and the child is under 12, you may be entitled to ‘Grandparent Credits’ otherwise known as ‘Specified Adult Childcare Credits’.
These will help build up your National Insurance contributions but you do have to be eligible. As a grandparent, as long as you are under the pension age, you will be eligible but you shouldn’t apply if you:
- Already have a qualifying year of National Insurance; or
- Are receiving Child Benefit for the Child
You are not provided with these Grandparent Credits automatically and will therefore have to make an application through the government website.
What are the benefits of applying?
A grandparent taking part in the scheme for a full year is able to claim an extra 1/35th of the state pension – £230 per year*. The scheme, although well publicised, has not been considered by many people and in the year to end of September 2017, there were only 9,486 applications*.
If you have been taking care of your grandchild since April 2011 but were unaware of this scheme, you can make backdated claims for all the years back to 2011.
If you’d like to speak to a member of the team about grandparents’ rights or any of the issues outlined above, please call 0113 201 4902 or email family.law@emsleys.co.uk.