DWP and HMRC announce new exercise to identify estimated £1.3 billion of underpaid state pension caused by historical failure to record home responsibilities protection

More than 200,000 people who claimed child benefit before May 2000 may be affected, with women in their 60s and 70s most likely to have lost out

The DWP and HMRC have announced a new exercise to identify an estimated £1.3 billion of underpaid state pension caused by an historical failure to record home responsibilities protection.

Summarising the issue that has been identified in the recording of Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) – a scheme operating until 6 April 2010 to help protect parents’ and carers’ entitlement to state pension – the Departments advise –

'If someone claimed child benefit before May 2000 and did not provide their national insurance number (NINo) on the claim, their national insurance record may not show the correct number of qualifying years of HRP. This may affect their state pension entitlement. Women in their 60s and 70s are most likely to be affected.

If someone first claimed child benefit after May 2000, they will not be affected and do not need to contact HMRC. This is because it became mandatory in May 2000 to provide a NINo for child benefit claims.

Class 3 National Insurance credits for parents and carers (CPC) available from 6 April 2010 have been recorded correctly, as have partial periods of HRP.'

As a result, HMRC confirms that it will start contacting people from Autumn 2023 who –

• might have been entitled to HRP between 1978 and 2010;
• have no HRP on their national insurance record.

Those found to have missed out on HRP entitlement will be able to claim online and HMRC and the DWP will then correct the affected national insurance records and update state pension entitlement ‘as quickly as possible’.

The Departments also confirm that –

'Some of the people affected may now have died.​ Their families will be entitled to check their eligibility and make a claim for any arrears they are owed.

There may be some people who are affected but who will not be identified by the search. HMRC may widen the search criteria once the initial contact has started.'

NB – the Comptroller and Auditor General Gareth Davies notes in today's National Audit Office report on the DWP's Annual Accounts 2022/2023  (on page 274) that the Department estimates that 210,000 people could be affected by the HRP error, with underpayments of state pension amounting to up to £1.3 billion.

For more information, see Home Responsibilities Protection: correction of National Insurance records and State Pension entitlement from gov.uk