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Thousands of Brits could be eligible for huge rebates from HMRC due to one huge state pension error.
Women in their 60s and 70s who claimed Child Benefit between 1978 and 2000, after their National Insurance credits – which contribute towards your state pension entitlement when you’re not working – could be entitled to thousands after credits were not correctly transferred.
Until 2010, National Insurance credits were referred to as Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP).
HRP reduced the number of qualifying years required to claim the state pension for parents and carers, and was mostly claimed by stay-at-home mothers or anyone who took a break from paid employment to care for a child or someone with a long-term disability or illness.
But if you claimed Child Benefit and did not include their National Insurance number on the form, their HRP credits may not have been correctly transferred to their National Insurance record.
This could have affected the amount of state pension they receive. It is estimated that 210,000 people may have been impacted, but out of this figure, 60,000 are now deceased and their families will be able to claim any money owed.
Those over pension age are being contacted first, and ministers have previously said the majority of those impacted by the error will be contacted by April next year. The average payout is £5,000, but it some cases it can run into tens of thousands of pounds, reports the Mirror.
One woman told MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis how she was able to reclaim a life-changing £82,000.
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.”
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.
