A historic oversight has led to thousands of people being owed large sums of money
Over 12,000 people are due up to £8,000 in repayments from the government after a major blunder by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
New research and analysis carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has identified 12,379 underpayments of the State Pension due to missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) – to the tune of £104m in total.
The HRP scheme ran from 1986 to 2010 and was used to reduce the number of years needed on someone’s National Insurance record to qualify for the full state pension.
This issue has predominantly affected women who gave birth to children in the 1980s and 1990s, with many in this group now being entitled to a sizeable payout totalling thousands of pounds.
HMRC is now sending letters to notify those impacted by the error with compensation of up to £8,000 for some women.
Unfortunately, many of those affected by the error have since passed on, but their surviving relatives still have the opportunity to lodge a claim on their behalf.
The HMRC stated: “Some customers affected by missing HRP may now have died. Their representative, or next of kin, will be entitled to check their eligibility and make a claim, using the same process as a living claimant. This may result in the payment of State Pension arrears.”
The government body kicked off its letter-sending campaign in 2023 after identifying the long-standing mistake.
To date, over 370,000 letters have been sent to people presumed to be affected by this discrepancy.
The government website offers a tool to check if you’re affected by a lack of HRP on your National Insurance record.
The department has issued guidance: “You must first Check your NI record online to see if you have any gaps in tax years 1978 to 2010. If you have any gaps, read the guidance available on GOV.UK and use the online tool to check if you are eligible to apply for HRP.”
Not all cases processed by DWP have an underpayment.
Cases may already have the qualifying years for a full state pension, may already receive a higher state pension inherited from their spouse, or may still not be entitled to state pension as all conditions not met.
