State pension: Women missing out on £30,000 of their pension – how much will you get?

State pension will be received by most Britons, however, there are claims women might be paid less than they are due.

The amount of state pension a person receives is calculated based on the number of qualifying years of national insurance payments they have made.

For women who take time out of employment to raise children, child credit acts as national insurance payments on your record.

Late last month it was revealed by HM Revenue & Customs 7.3 million families on child benefit, down from almost 8m families in 2012.

Less claims are being made by women, which could cause them to miss out on pension payments later in life.

Claiming child benefit means women get national insurance credit towards their pension, boost their payments.

It is important to claim child benefit, even if you don’t need it, for this reason.

Losing six years of national insurance payments while raising children amounts to a reaction of the state pension by £1,464 a year, nearly £30,000 in total.

Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb told FT Adviser: “No-one should face poverty in retirement because they spent time at home bringing up young children.

“Huge numbers of families with young children are now missing out and the government now needs to act with urgency.

“Without action, hundreds of thousands of mothers in particular are set to face retirement poverty.”

Experts at PensionBee told Express.co.uk: “In terms of the state pension, the fact that you’ve claimed child benefit indicates to the government that you’re off work to care for your child, so you should continue to receive national insurance credits.

“This is important because the number of credits you have informs the calculation of how much state pension you’ll receive when you retire.

“If you fail to do this, you have less national insurance credit and therefore might receive a lower state pension.”

They added: “Everyone can claim child benefit, although if you or your partner earn more than £50,000 after tax then some of it will be clawed back in the form of a tax charge.

“If you’re affected by the tax charge then you can choose not to claim child benefit, but you should still fill in the form so that you keep accruing national insurance credits.”

How much state pension you get could be slashed by hundreds of pounds.

According to report by Which, a number of state pensioners could see less in their bank accounts when they receive their payments.

Why is this? A number of pensioners have received letters that state their pension will be slashed.

The government was given the wrong data about a number of pensions, meaning some Britons have been paid too much.

source: express.co.uk