Over 10,000 grandparents in the UK are claiming the pension credits worth £250 a year for looking after their grandchildren that they are entitled to.
While it is a large increase on the 1,298 who were doing so only a few years ago, it is believed it is still only a tiny fraction of those who could actually benefit.
Figures from Royal London show as many as a million people are still missing out.
Speaking to the Mirror, Royal London director of policy Steve Webb said: “Whilst it is great news that thousands more grandparents are now benefiting from this scheme, the numbers are still a drop in the ocean out of all those who could benefit.
"It is increasingly common for grandparents to spend some time each week looking after their grandchildren, often to enable a parent to go out to work.
"It would be quite wrong if these grandparents suffered financially in terms of their own state pension as a result.
"This scheme needs to be much better publicised and I would encourage any family with a grandparent under pension age who helps out with the childcare to find out more.” 'Why Universal Credit is actually a great idea'
How the grandparents' credit works
The scheme is designed to help out family members who are looking after children under 12 while the child’s parents are out.
It works because people claiming child benefit automatically also receive a National Insurance credit, so they don't miss out on their state pension for taking time off work to raise their children.
Each credit is currently worth £250 a year on your state pension, you generally need 35 years' worth built up to get the full amount.
But large numbers of parents don't need the free credit, as they get one from their work already.
This system lets parents transfer their National Insurance credit from them, to someone else who's looking after their children.
The better news is that there is no minimum requirement for hours spent caring, and you can even back-date claims to when the scheme was first introduced in 2011. 'He can expect prison' - pensioner admits having 31,500 images of children
The scheme is officially known as the "specified adult childcare credit". So people such as uncles and aunts can also claim it - provided they spend time looking after their nephews or neices.
A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesman said: "The number of people receiving specified adult childcare credits has risen substantially since they were introduced in 2011.
"We encourage everyone who might benefit to apply for the credits to which they're entitled and extensive information on how to apply can be found on gov.uk."
More information about specified adult childcare credits can be found here .
