Expert issued a warning to anyone who has taken time off work to look after their children (Image: Lana2011 via Getty Images)
Pension experts have suggested that anyone who raised children between 1978 and 2010 could be owed payouts averaging £8,377. Pension reclaim specialist AskRose, which is supporting around 100,000 women potentially affected, this week revealed that dozens of its own clients have died since making a claim.
If a person took a break from work or reduced their hours to look after children or someone with a long-term illness or disability between 1978 and 2010, a scheme called Home Responsibilities Protection was designed to protect their state pension. Historic errors by HMRC mean thousands of women never had that protection correctly recorded, as National Insurance records were not always properly linked to Child Benefit or Family Allowance applications.
This leaves HMRC and DWP unable to pinpoint everyone affected, which is why people are being encouraged to check their own records rather than waiting to be contacted. Official HMRC figures show the average payout stands at £8,377.
Authorities have sent out more than 370,000 letters to those potentially eligible.
The government has previously stated: “Home Responsibilities Protection was a scheme that ran between 6 April 1978 and 5 April 2010 which reduced the number of qualifying years of National Insurance contributions a person with caring responsibilities needed to receive the full basic State Pension.”
“The government reported the findings of its investigations into some missing historical periods of Home Responsibilities Protection in some individuals’ records, and the associated impact on State Pension awards, in the Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 [HC 1455]. The main cause of the issue was that NI numbers were not always recorded when customers claimed Child Benefit before 2000. The government has estimated that around 210,000 individuals may have been affected by missing periods of Home Responsibilities Protection.
“HMRC and DWP are working together to correct cases as quickly as possible. HMRC started contacting potentially impacted customers from September 2023, prioritising those above State Pension age.”
Regarding the free check, the Government has stated: “To correct this issue, potentially impacted customers will be invited to check their eligibility and make an application to HMRC for Home Responsibilities Protection. To help individuals determine their eligibility, a self-identification tool is available on GOV.UK. Where an application is successful, those with a State Pension impact will have their award corrected and any arrears paid. HMRC and DWP will also trigger a wider communications campaign working with key stakeholders and representative bodies to ensure that all those who may be eligible are aware of this.
“Before making an application, people can learn more about Home Responsibilities Protection, check the eligibility criteria and find the application form online at www.gov.uk/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp/eligibility. Customers under State Pension age can check their National Insurance and State Pension forecasts online at www.gov.uk/check-state-pension.”
In a recent post on X, personal finance expert Lewis highlighted: “State Pension error! Did you take time off work (1978 to 2010) to look after children or someone with long term disability? You could be owed £10,000s. In brief: 100,000s wrongly have Nat Insurance gaps that reduce your State Pension as they should’ve got ‘Home Responsibilities Protection’. The Govt was contacting people, but isn’t any longer. Thus the onus is on YOU to proactively check.”
He went on to explain one case where a woman received an incredible £31,000 back from HMRC. The money-saving guru added: “Cilla emailed us, ‘I’ve just received 15yrs’ back pay from HMRC of £31,674 for underpayment of my pension.'” This follows recent statistics showing that more than £800 million is owed by the Government in State Pension underpayments.
With regards to eligibility, people must have been receiving their state pension for at least one complete year before an underpayment can be investigated, which given the current pension age of 66, means you need to be 67 or older. Simply having raised children during that time is not enough by itself.
The protection was specifically designed for those who cut back their working hours or stopped working altogether to care for others, meaning if your National Insurance contributions were properly recorded throughout, you won’t be eligible.
HMRC’s own campaign to contact affected pensioners in 2023 secured a response rate of merely eight per cent, with advisers warning that some claimants have since died before their cases could be settled. Elaine Walker, Director of AskRose, says the human cost of the delay has been significant.
She said: “In the time it has taken to open this process up, too many of our clients have sadly passed away before being able to claim the money they were owed. They were left, in some cases, for more than 15 years without a fair pension and were then unable to even enjoy getting their recompense.”
You could qualify if you:
- Claimed Child Benefit for a child under 16.
- Were a partner of someone who claimed Child Benefit while you were the main carer.
- Received Income Support as a carer.
- Looked after someone who was sick or disabled and receiving certain benefits.
After a claim is submitted to HMRC and the DWP, processing usually takes approximately four to six months.
