State pensioners have been encouraged to do a check as they could be owed £5,000 in back payments from the DWP. Some 210,000 pensioners, mostly women, could be soon to get £5,000 each in payments owing to missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) on their National Insurance (NI) record.
All back payments should go out by the end of next year to those affected. HMRC started a campaign of sending out letters to those who may have been affected in September last year.
Officials with the DWP are working through individual cases to identify and issue any back payments. The DWP estimates that between £300million and £1.5billion was underpaid due to HRP errors.
Parents and carers were entitled to HRP to keep up their NI contributions towards their state pension while they were out of work. The scheme was replaced by NI credits in 2010.
There is the option to make a claim on behalf of a relative who has now died, with more information on how to claim available on the gov.uk website.
You may still be able to apply for HRP, for full tax years between 1978 and 2010, if any of the following were true:.
- You were claiming Child Benefit for a child under 16.
- You were caring for a child with your partner who claimed Child Benefit instead of you.
- You were getting Income Support because you were caring for someone who was sick or disabled.
- You were caring for a sick or disabled person who was claiming certain benefits.
You can also apply if, for a full tax year between 2003 and 2010, you were either:.
- A foster carer.
- In Scotland, those caring for a friend or family member’s child, known as ‘kinship carers’, have been affected.
Starting from the tax year in 2010, HRP applications required a National Insurance number. Therefore, if your claim dates from this point onwards, you will not have been impacted.