Over recent years I have come across several new clients, that have had gaps in their National Insurance (NI) record causing a reduction in their state pension.

Common causes:

• Your NI credit for your state pension stops when your youngest child is 12years old.
• The father is the stay at home dad with the mother being the primary earner and not transferring the child benefit claim.
• Ceasing the child benefit because one parent earns £50,000+ but the other parent earns less than the NI threshold or nothing at all.

In many cases this can be avoided:

• By operating payroll - if the other parent is self-employed or has a limited company, they can employ their spouse/partner.
• Register as self-employed yourself so you can pay class 2 NI - useful if your spouse/partner is self-employed.
• Keep receiving the child benefit even when your income is over £50,000, even though it has to be repaid to HMRC.

There is a back up option of making voluntary contributions but:

• The cost is circa £800 per tax year.
• It can only be back dated 6-years.

If you wish to view your NI record, you can either call HMRC NI line 0300 200 3500 but they cannot give you your state pension forecast.

The DWP can give you a state pension forecast.

However, you can view both online and have it set up in minutes by creating a personal tax account online. Full instructions are on my TAX ACCOUNT WEBPAGE.