14 February 2024 , 12:37
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HMRC is writing to thousands of parents who could be owed money due to a huge state pension error - and has explained when you should expect to be notified.
Those who are affected are mainly stay-at-home mums who made a claim for Child Benefit between 1978 and 2000. The issue happened when National Insurance credits they should have received - which help build up your state pension entitlement - were not transferred across properly.
National Insurance credits - which build up your qualifying National Insurance years when you're out of work - were previously known as Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) up until 2010. HRP reduced the number of qualifying years you need to claim the state pension for parents and carers. Anyone who is affected could be owed an average of £5,000 each. But of the 210,000 people affected, it is estimated around 60,000 are now deceased and family will be able to make a claim for any money owed.
Speaking in the Commons last week, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Nigel Huddleston MP said: "HMRC started contacting potentially impacted customers from September 2023, prioritising those above state pension age. They aim to identify and contact the majority of individuals who may have been affected over the next 18 months so that those eligible receive any arrears payments as quickly as possible."
Those over pension age are being prioritised and contacted first, but Sir Steve Webb, former pensions minister and now partner at LCP, has previously issued a warning over some people potentially never receiving a letter. It is worth doing your own checks to see if you could be owed money.
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A DWP spokesperson said: “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, with further resources being allocated throughout 2023 to ensure pensioners receive the support to which they’re entitled.”
How do I check if I’ve been underpaid?
The main rules for qualifying for a year of HRP from 1978 are:
You had to be receiving child benefit in your own name (not that of a spouse or partner)
Your child was under 16 for the whole of the financial year in question
You were not paying the married woman’s ‘reduced stamp’
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 NI 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 NI 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. To claim missing HRP up until March 2010, you need to fill in the form CF411.