Pension specialists say individuals who raised children between 1978 and 2010 could receive compensation averaging £8,377. The payments stem from historical errors by HMRC in documenting Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP), a scheme that reduced the National Insurance contributions needed for a full state pension.
Who is eligible?
Eligible claimants include those who took time off work or reduced hours to care for a child under 16, or someone with a chronic illness or disability, between 6 April 1978 and 5 April 2010. The HRP programme was designed to safeguard the state pension for carers, but mistakes mean many women never had that protection properly recorded.
Official HMRC data shows the average compensation stands at £8,377. The government has sent more than 370,000 letters to potentially entitled individuals. However, because National Insurance numbers were not always linked to Child Benefit or Family Allowance claims before 2000, HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) cannot identify everyone affected.
Claims and responses
HMRC began contacting impacted customers from September 2023, prioritising those above state pension age. Despite this, only 8% of those contacted responded. Pension recovery firm AskRose, which is assisting around 100,000 potentially affected women, reported that dozens of its clients have died since lodging a claim.
Elaine Walker, Director of AskRose, said: "In the time it has taken to open this process up, too many of our clients have sadly passed away before being able to claim the money they were owed. They were left, in some cases, for more than 15 years without a fair pension and were then unable to even enjoy getting their recompense."
Government statements
The government stated: "Home Responsibilities Protection was a scheme that ran between 6 April 1978 and 5 April 2010 which reduced the number of qualifying years of National Insurance contributions a person with caring responsibilities needed to receive the full basic State Pension."
It added: "The government reported the findings of its investigations into some missing historical periods of Home Responsibilities Protection in some individuals' records, and the associated impact on State Pension awards, in the Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 [HC 1455]. The main cause of the issue was that NI numbers were not always recorded when customers claimed Child Benefit before 2000. The government has estimated that around 210,000 individuals may have been affected by missing periods of Home Responsibilities Protection."
How to check and apply
Potentially affected individuals are urged to examine their own records rather than waiting to be contacted. A self-identification tool is available on GOV.UK. To be considered, claimants must have been receiving their state pension for at least one full year, meaning they need to be aged 67 or older. Simply having raised children during the period is not enough; the protection was for those who reduced work or stopped caring for others. If National Insurance contributions were correctly recorded throughout, the person is not eligible.
People can learn more, check eligibility criteria, and find the application form at www.gov.uk/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp/eligibility. Those under state pension age can check their National Insurance and state pension forecasts at www.gov.uk/check-state-pension. Once a claim is submitted to HMRC and the DWP, processing typically takes four to six months.
Eligibility conditions include: claiming Child Benefit for a child under 16; being the partner of someone who claimed Child Benefit while you were the main carer; receiving Income Support as a carer; or looking after someone sick or disabled who was receiving certain benefits.
