Parents and carers on the state pension could receive back payments of nearly £8,000 this year, it has been reported. HMRC has confirmed that more than 370,000 letters have been sent to older individuals, mostly women, asking them to review their state pension.
The letters have been sent out following a review between January 2024 and September 2024, which found underpayments relating to errors in National Insurance ‘top ups’ calculated using Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP).
A total of 370,018 letters have been sent out and Brits are being urged to watch out for them.
They are related to Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) which was introduced in April 1978; parents who did not work got this protection until their child was 16.
HRP meant parents who did not work still got entitlement to the state pension, in April 2010 HRP was replaced by National Insurance (NI) Credits for parents and carers, and these credits are given until a child is 12.
The government (DWP) issued a statement in July 2023 that a lot of women who had children between 1978 and 2010 may not have had HRP added to their NI accounts, so consequently may have been underpaid their state pension.
HMRC are currently going through backdated records, but it may be worth looking at your NI record to see if there are any non-qualifying years from 1978 when you may have had a child/children under the age of 16.
If you have missing years, then you should put in a claim for HRP. If you do not have access to a computer, the telephone number for the NI helpline is 0300 200 3500.
Not all cases processed by DWP resulted in an underpayment. Some cases may already meet the qualifying years for a full state pension, may already be receiving a higher state pension inherited from their spouse, or may still not be entitled to state pension as all conditions have not been met.
