Martin Lewis MSE's little known hack to boost state pension by thousands

A little-known hack could boost your state pension by thousands, as revealed by Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert website. If you are not receiving the maximum state pension because of gaps in your National Insurance (NI), this scheme could help.

Many grandparents may already qualify, because the scheme awards extra NI credits to people who have looked after young members of their family before retirement age. The NI credits that normally would go to an off-work childcaring parent are given to the family member caring for the child instead, meaning the pension pot could be boosted by thousands.

If you already receive the maximum state pension, this hack wouldn't help, but you could gain some money if your NI record has gaps between 2011 and now.

To be eligible, you must live in the UK and have looked after a child under the age of 12 who was a family member. When you were giving the care, you must have been between the age of 16 and the state pension age, which is currently 66.

As MSE explains, for this hack to work, the parent must be registered for child benefit, even if they aren't receiving it. This is because it uses the NI credits that would have gone to an off-work caregiving parent.

If the parent begins to earn enough through employment to get a NI credit, the credit they received from their child benefit can be transferred to a family member who's helping to look after the child.

There is no minimum number of hours you need to have been looking after the child, however, only the childcare you provided before you reached state pension age counts.

The money isn't allocated automatically, so you need to apply for it through this form on the government website. It may be possible to backdate your claim to 2011.