Grandparents' National Insurance Credits

By Sam Parkinson · Last updated: August 2026 · 6 min read

If you look after a grandchild under 12 while their parent works, there is a National Insurance credit sitting unused that you can move to your own record. Each year you claim adds about £358.50 a year to your State Pension, for life. You can go back to 2011. Almost nobody claims it, mostly because almost nobody knows it exists.

Where the credit comes from

When someone claims Child Benefit for a child under 12, they automatically get a National Insurance credit for every week of the claim. That credit protects the State Pension of a parent who is at home looking after the child.

A parent who goes back to work and pays National Insurance through their job already has that year covered. The credit their Child Benefit claim generates does nothing for them. It just sits there.

Specified Adult Childcare credits let that parent hand the unused credit to the family member doing the childcare. The parent loses nothing, because their working year already qualifies. The grandparent gains a qualifying year they would otherwise have to buy.

What a year is actually worth

The credit is a Class 3 credit, which counts towards a qualifying year for the new State Pension. You need 35 qualifying years for the full rate.

So one year is worth 1/35th of the full new State Pension. At the 2026/27 rate of £241.30 a week, that is £6.89 a week, or £358.50 a year, paid for the rest of your life and rising every year with the triple lock. That is my arithmetic from the published rate, not an official figure.

Put it another way. Buying that same qualifying year with voluntary Class 3 National Insurance costs £956.80 at the 2026/27 rate of £18.40 a week. So every year of childcare credit you claim is worth roughly a thousand pounds you do not have to spend, and it pays out for as long as you live.

Who can claim

Not just grandparents, despite the nickname. The list of eligible family members covers grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters including half, step and adopted siblings, a parent who does not live with the child, and the husbands, wives, partners and civil partners of any of those.

You also need all of the following to have been true while you were doing the care:

• The child was under 12.
• You were 16 or over and under State Pension age.
• You were ordinarily resident in the UK, not counting the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.
• The child's parent or main carer claimed Child Benefit and does not need the credit for that year themselves.
• That parent or main carer agrees to your claim and countersigns the form.

The care does not have to be full time and there is no minimum number of hours in the rules. Looking after a grandchild after school and in the holidays counts.

Only one set of credits per Child Benefit claim

This is the part that catches families out. There is one set of credits attached to each Child Benefit claim, not one per child and not one per carer. If both grandmothers help out, or a grandparent and an aunt, they cannot both claim the same period. They have to agree between themselves who takes it.

Two children in the same household on the same Child Benefit claim still produce one set of credits, not two.

How far back you can go

Claims run back to 6 April 2011. There is one timing rule that surprises people: you have to wait until 31 October after the end of the tax year you are claiming for.

So as things stand in August 2026, you can claim any tax year from 2011/12 up to 2024/25, which is fourteen years. The 2025/26 year opens on 31 October 2026.

Fourteen years at £956.80 of equivalent voluntary contributions is a little over £13,000 of National Insurance you would not have to pay. Very few people will actually need fourteen, because of the 35-year cap, but it shows the scale of what goes unclaimed.

How to claim

• Check your record first. Your State Pension forecast on GOV.UK shows how many qualifying years you have and what you are on track for. If you are already at 35, stop here.
• Work out which tax years you want. One application can cover several years. Note the weeks you provided care in each.
• Fill in form CA9176. It is on GOV.UK under "Apply for Specified Adult Childcare credits". You complete your part, the Child Benefit claimant completes and signs theirs.
• Send it and wait. HMRC confirms in writing. If the credit is refused, ask why before reapplying, because it is usually the parent's own record or a mismatch on the dates.

If your record has gaps that this will not cover, filling National Insurance gaps goes through the paid route and the deadlines that apply to it. And if you are a parent rather than a grandparent, pensions for parents and carers covers the Child Benefit trap and the other credits worth knowing about.

Common questions

This article is for general information only and does not constitute financial advice. Eligibility rules and National Insurance rates come from GOV.UK and were checked on 30 August 2026; rates change each tax year and the rules can change too, so confirm your own position before applying. The value of a qualifying year shown here is calculated from the published State Pension rate, not quoted by HMRC. Check your own National Insurance record and State Pension forecast on GOV.UK, and for free guidance use MoneyHelper or speak to a financial adviser regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).