Thousands of people are due to receive a letter from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) informing them they may be owed additional money. HMRC will contact those affected throughout the autumn, with those over state pension age being contacted first.
The people being written to will be asked if they have information missing from their national insurance (NI) records which could have a direct effect on their state pension. One of the things missing from their records could be home responsibilities protection (HRP), which was set up to help protect parents' and carers' entitlement to state pension
Many of those being written to will be older women. HRP was replaced by NI credits from April 6, 2010, M.E.N reports.
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It comes as the Department for Work and Pensions estimated there are “around 187,000 cases who may have an underpayment of state pension and for whom we expect to correct”. In an annual report it said 43,000 of those are thought to have died.
Women in their 60s and 70s are among those who are most lively impacted by the issues, which impacts those who claimed child benefit before May 2000 and did not provide their NI number on the claim. Their NI record may not show the correct number of qualifying years of HRP, which could affect their state pension entitlement.
HMRC is using NI records to identify as many people as possible who could have been entitled to HRP between 1978 and 2010 who don't have it on their record. Sir Steve Webb, a former pensions minister who is now a partner at LCP (Lane Clark & Peacock) said: “Missing out on protection for time at home with children could make a huge difference to a mother’s pension entitlement, and lump sum payments of arrears could run into many thousands of pounds for those who are affected.
“I hope that this correction process will be completed as quickly as possible. “The scale of these errors is huge. It is shocking that so many women have been underpaid so much money. This makes it essential that things are put right as a matter of urgency.”
