Martin Lewis has issued a warning that 210,000 people could be owed an average of £8,377 in missing state pension payments. The Money Saving Expert said on X: “The Govt was contacting people, but isn't any longer. Thus the onus is on YOU to proactively check.”
Who is affected?
Anyone who raised children between 1978 and 2010 may be entitled. Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) was designed to safeguard the state pension for individuals who took time off work or reduced hours to care for children or someone with a long-term illness or disability. Historical HMRC mistakes mean thousands, predominantly women, never had that protection recorded accurately because National Insurance records were not always linked to Child Benefit or Family Allowance applications.
This leaves HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) unable to identify everyone affected. Officials have dispatched more than 370,000 letters to people potentially impacted.
Government statement
The Government has stated: “Home Responsibilities Protection was a scheme that ran between April 6, 1978, and April 5, 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. 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.”
HMRC and DWP are working together to correct cases. HMRC started contacting potentially impacted customers from September 2023, prioritising those above State Pension age.
Case study: £31,674 back pay
Lewis highlighted one case where a woman, Cilla, received £31,674 from HMRC. He wrote: “Cilla emailed us, 'I've just received 15yrs' back pay from HMRC of £31,674 for underpayment of my pension.'”
How to check
The Government has said: “To correct this issue, potentially impacted customers will be invited to check their eligibility and make an application to HMRC for Home Responsibilities Protection. A self-identification tool is available on GOV.UK. Where an application is successful, those with a State Pension impact will have their award corrected and any arrears paid.”
You could qualify if you claimed Child Benefit for a child under 16, were a partner of someone who claimed Child Benefit while you were the main carer, received Income Support as a carer, or looked after someone sick or disabled receiving certain benefits. Once a claim is passed to HMRC and DWP, processing typically takes around four to six months.
