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Your spouse or civil partner can use this benefit to make up for missed National Insurance payments when they accompany you overseas
If your spouse or civil partner can’t work because they’ve accompanied you on a posting overseas, they won’t be able to keep up their National Insurance payments – which could affect their future State Pension entitlements. Fortunately, they can use Spousal National Insurance Credits to fill in the gaps in their payment record.
This credit is available for tax years from 1975/76 to the present. It can only be used to cover UK National Insurance and UK Social Security contributions.
In the Army, in certain locally recruited regiments such as the Gurkhas, individuals may not have been insured under the UK National Insurance scheme at the time of their postings, in which case your spouse or civil partner will not be entitled to credits for that period.
These credits will help maintain their National Insurance record to protect their entitlement to the new State Pension, which will be based on a person’s own National Insurance record.
They should claim Class 1 credits if accompanying you on an assignment overseas after 6th April 2010. These can help protect their entitlement to Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, and the State Pension.
Class 3 credits should be claimed for any period your spouse or civil partner spent accompanying you overseas on or after 6 April 1975. where there are gaps in their National Insurance record. These can only be used to protect their entitlement to the new State Pension, which will be based on their National Insurance record.
They should apply before the end of the tax year following the tax year when the posting ended by completing part 1 of the form, which can be found at
application-for-national-insurance-credits class 1
. A tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April so, for example, for a posting that ended between 6 April 2018 and 5 April 2019 they should apply by 5 April 2020.
Once completed, you should ask your Unit welfare team to complete page 2 and you should then submit the form to the address indicated
There is no time limit to apply for Class 3 credits. They should apply online by completing the form which can be found at application-for-class 3-credits. They will need a Government Gateway user ID and password to do this . If they don’t have a user ID, they can create one when they apply.
Page last updated: 23 January 2024
Read the HMRC & DWP guidance on National Insurance credits for partners of Armed Forces personnel overseas
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