Pension reclaim specialist AskRose has urged UK mothers who raised children between 1978 and 2010 to check if they are owed average payments of £8,377 due to historical errors by HMRC. The government has sent more than 370,000 letters to potentially affected individuals, but many may not have been reached.
Background of Home Responsibilities Protection
Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) was a scheme that ran from 6 April 1978 to 5 April 2010. It reduced the number of qualifying years of National Insurance contributions needed for individuals with caring responsibilities to receive the full basic State Pension. However, HMRC failed to consistently link National Insurance records to Child Benefit or Family Allowance applications, leaving thousands of women with inaccurate records.
Official HMRC figures show the average payout stands at £8,377. AskRose, working with approximately 100,000 potentially affected women, reports that dozens of its clients have passed away since submitting a claim.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible, applicants must have claimed their state pension for at least one full year before an underpayment can be examined. Given the current state pension age of 66, this means claimants must be 67 or older. Simply having raised children during that period is insufficient; HRP was specifically for individuals who reduced working hours or gave up work to care for others. If National Insurance contributions were correctly recorded, no payment is due.
Eligible individuals include those who:
- 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 sick or disabled receiving certain benefits
Government Response and Outreach
HMRC started contacting potentially impacted customers from September 2023, prioritising those above State Pension age. However, the outreach campaign achieved a response rate of just eight per cent. The government has estimated that around 210,000 individuals may be affected by missing HRP periods.
Elaine Walker, Director of AskRose, commented: “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.”
How to Apply
Potentially impacted individuals can use a self-identification tool on GOV.UK to check eligibility. Successful applicants will have their State Pension award corrected and any arrears paid. Processing typically takes four to six months. For more information, visit www.gov.uk/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp/eligibility or check National Insurance records at www.gov.uk/check-state-pension.
