Martin Lewis says claim this benefit even if you earn over £60,000 | Personal Finance | Finance

Money specialist Martin Lewis has told his audience to make sure they claim Child Benefit even if they earn more than the £60,000 threshold for the benefit.

That’s because of a quirk to the system which means that claiming Child Benefit can give you a year on your National Insurance records, which could mean you’re paid a lot more money in your state pension when you come to retire because your payout is calculated based on your National Insurance records. Martin returned on The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV1 and ITVX on Tuesday, March 4, to talk about boosting your National Insurance records. You need at least 10 years of records to claim any state pension at all, and you need about 35 years to claim the full state pension, currently £220.20 a week, going up to £230 a week from April.

Martin said that you don’t necessarily need to buy missing years at £800 a pop though, as there are some circumstances in which you can earn a National Insurance year in other ways.

One such method is by claiming Child Benefit. Martin explained to his viewers that a lot of people think they shouldn’t bother claiming Child Benefit, which is roughly £102 per month paid to parents of one child, which goes up by roughly £69 for each additional child, because you have to repay the benefit back to HMRC if you earn more than £60,000, and you have to repay the whole benefit back when you earn over £80,000.

But even if you get nothing from Child Benefit, it can still use it to trigger a National Insurance year being added to your records, at no cost to you.

Martin explained: “The next mistake that people make on this is some people don’t think there’s any point claiming Child Benefit because their partner’s a higher earner and the Higher Income Child Benefit Charge would simply take it away.

“Mistake. Right, you need to claim it to trigger getting National Insurance credits. You can actually claim at the zero rate, so you actually claim it to get nothing. But you should still claim it.

“Now, you can only backdate this one three months so it’s not really a retrospective gain but if you’re in that position right now, go and claim it at the zero rate to make sure you’re getting the National Insurance credits if you’re not working.”

The Martin Lewis Money Show Live March 4 episode is still available to watch via ITVX.