If you had a baby in the 80s of 90s, you could be one of thousands of people who are owed money following a major National Insurance error. HMRC is sending letters to people who may be being underpaid the state pension.
It is mainly stay-at-home mums who made a claim for Child Benefit between 1978 and 2000 that are affected. The issue relates to people who missed out on Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) which reduced the number of qualifying years you need on your National Insurance record to claim the state pension.
You could claim HRP if you were claiming Child Benefit or if you claimed Income Support due to having to take time off work because you were caring for someone. HRP was replaced by National Insurance credits in 2010. However, an investigation has found that Child Benefit claim forms submitted before 2000 did not include a National Insurance number.
This means thousands of people did not have the correct level HRP entitlement transferred across to their National Insurance record. If you have gaps in your record, you may being underpaid the state pension, or are forecast to in the future. HMRC has sent letters to 370,000 people and the average amount of money due back is £7,859 per person.
Of those who responded to the letters, HMRC identified 5,344 cases of underpayments between January 8 and September 30, 2024, totalling approximately £42million in arrears. It’s believed 43,000 of those who are estimated to be affected by the historic error are now deceased, but their families can claim on their behalf. Those over pension age are being prioritised and contacted first by HMRC.
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The main rules for qualifying for a year of HRP from 1978 are:
If you suspect you have missed out, you should first check your state pension and your National Insurance record. For those who reached pension age after April 5, 2010, any year of HRP/credits should be showing as a complete year on your National Insurance record. If not, then you may have missed out.
For those who reached pension age on or before April 5, 2010, HRP was recorded in a different way and you need to phone the National Insurance helpline to check if there is HRP on your record. The Government has also created an online checker tool on GOV.UK to see if you’re likely to be eligible to make a claim.
If HRP is missing from your National Insurance record, HMRC will contact the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) who will then recalculate your state pension entitlement so you get the right amount going forward. You will also be sent any backpayments you are owed.
A DWP spokesperson previously told The Mirror: “The action we are taking now will correct historical underpayments made by successive governments. We are fully committed to addressing these errors, not identified under previous governments, as quickly as possible. We have set up a dedicated team and devoted significant resources towards completing this.”
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