HI, I have been a carer for my wife since about 1984/5 and claimed income support, but after a while I was advised to make my wife the claimant and that why I could go to college. We’ve continued claiming like that since but are now both retirement age My wife has full state Pension but I’ve only been awarded £400 as I have 10 years of stamp missing and this is due to changing the claim to my wife.
Can anyone help me with advice as to what I can do regarding the missing 10 years
Hi Mark,
welcome to the forum.
I suggest you read this information Basic State Pension - What if I don't qualify? | Turn2us
They have a helpline too: Our helpline | Turn2us
You may not qualify for the Basic State Pension yourself because you haven’t paid enough national insurance contributions or received enough national insurance credits. You may still be able to claim Basic State Pension in some situations. You could also be eligible for Pension Credit to top-up your income.
Let us know how you get on.
Melly1
Even if you were not getting Carers Allowance, you might still be able to claim Carers Credits, but I can’t remember the eat name DWP use. ?Home responsibilities Protection? Hopefully someone else here will know?
You can purchase certain years (you should be offed that information by the DWP). But make sure what your purchase will return you a good rate. Sometimes it’s not worth purchasing.
There were time scales put on when you could apply for VC’s
Voluntary contributions won’t always increase your state pension, so you’ll need to find out if you’ll benefit from plugging the gaps. Although it’s called VC you have to purchase stamps for missing years.
Read more: Can I top up my state pension? Voluntary NI explained - Which? - Which?
You need advice speak to Citizens Advice.
You can sign up on gov uk and check all your contributions online, it will show you what years are missing and what has been credited for. If you switched to her name then it likely won’t show up as you having been awarded the credits yourself, there should have been a switch back after you finished the college course.