The grandparents who can earn National Insurance credits for childcare

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Pauline collects her granddaughter from nursery, gives her tea and hands her back once her daughter is home from the hospital shift. Pauline left her office job at 58 and has paid no National Insurance since. She had no idea those two afternoons a week might count towards her own State Pension.

Pauline is invented, but the arrangement is familiar to a great many families. Since 6 April 2011, a scheme called Specified Adult Childcare credits has allowed certain relatives to receive National Insurance credits for this kind of care. It is not automatic, and both the carer and the parent have to agree to it.

How Specified Adult Childcare credits work

A parent who claims Child Benefit for a child under 12 receives National Insurance credits through that claim. If the parent does not need those credits, typically because they are working and already have a qualifying year from their own earnings, the credit can be transferred to a relative who looked after the child.

The relative receives a Class 3 National Insurance credit for each week, or part week, in which they provided care. GOV.UK describes the credits as a way to help stop gaps in your National Insurance record. A qualifying year counts towards the State Pension, so a year filled by credits works the same way as a year filled by contributions.

Who counts as an eligible family member

According to HMRC guidance, you can apply if, at the time you provided the care, you were aged 16 or over but under State Pension age, the child was under 12, and you were ordinarily resident in the UK (not the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man). You must also be one of these:

• a grandparent, great-grandparent or great-great-grandparent
• an aunt or uncle
• a brother or sister, including half, step or adopted siblings
• a mother or father who does not live with the child
• a current or previous spouse, partner or civil partner of anyone above, or their son or daughter

A spouse or partner living with the Child Benefit recipient uses a different form, CF411A, rather than this scheme.

The parent’s side of the arrangement

The credit comes from the parent’s Child Benefit claim, so a few conditions sit on their side:

• The parent or main carer must have claimed Child Benefit for the child. If nobody has, there is no credit to transfer.
• They must not need the credit themselves, and must agree to the application and countersign it.
• There is one credit per Child Benefit claim, however many children are on it. If two relatives share the childcare, the Child Benefit recipient decides who receives it.

HMRC suggests the parent checks their own National Insurance record online first, to confirm they have a credit to spare. You should not apply for a period in which you already have a qualifying year of your own.

What a credited year can be worth

The full new State Pension for 2026/27 is £241.30 a week. For people whose record starts after April 2016, it takes 35 qualifying years to reach the full rate, and at least 10 to get any new State Pension. On a straightforward record, each extra qualifying year adds roughly one 35th of the full rate, about £6.89 a week.

For comparison, filling a full year with Class 3 voluntary contributions at the 2026/27 rate of £18.40 a week would cost £956.80. A credited year costs nothing. If you are weighing up voluntary payments, our article on what your State Pension forecast is telling you about missing years explains how to check whether a gap is worth filling at all.

A family example, step by step

Assumes Pauline is under State Pension age, lives in the UK and provided care in each week claimed. HMRC checks the parent’s record before transferring any credit.

A qualifying year counts towards the State Pension, so a year filled by credits works the same way as a year filled by contributions.

When and how to apply

You cannot apply straight away. HMRC says you must wait until 31 October after the end of the tax year you want to apply for, because it first needs to confirm that the parent already has a qualifying year. For the 2025/26 tax year, that date is 31 October 2026. Credits are available for care going back to 6 April 2011.

The application is form CA9176, available from GOV.UK:

1. Gather your details, the child’s details, the dates or periods of care, and the Child Benefit recipient’s details. The online form cannot be saved part way through.
2. Fill in form CA9176 online on GOV.UK.
3. Print it, and have both you and the Child Benefit recipient sign the declaration.
4. Post it to HMRC at the address shown on the form.

Applying is free, and you do not need anyone’s help beyond the parent’s signature.

Worth knowing

Care given by phone or video during the pandemic can count for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 tax years, according to HMRC guidance.

Whose record this could help, and what to check first

The credits make the most sense for relatives under State Pension age who are not building a qualifying year another way: people who retired early, cut back to low earnings, or stepped away from paid work. Someone in steady employment earning above the Lower Earnings Limit (£129 a week in 2026/27) will usually already have a qualifying year.

• Check your own National Insurance record for gaps in the years you were caring.
• Ask the parent to check theirs, to confirm the credit is spare.
• Make sure Child Benefit was actually claimed for those years.
• Agree within the family who should receive the credit, if more than one relative helped.

If your income in retirement is likely to be low, it is also worth knowing how Pension Credit can connect to other help.

In short

Regular childcare by a grandparent or other relative can, with the parent’s agreement, become a credited year on the carer’s own National Insurance record. The scheme rests on three checks: a Child Benefit claim, a parent who does not need the credit, and a carer with a gap to fill. Where all three line up, a single signed form is the official route.