HMRC writing to thousands of people as they could be owed £5,000 or more

HMRC is contacting thousands of people over a state pension error

Thousands of people, mainly women, are receiving letters from HMRC about money owed to them following a huge state pension error.

This issue mainly affects women in their 60s and 70s who made a claim for Child Benefit between 1978 and 2000, after their National Insurance credits - which help build up your state pension entitlement if you're out of work - were not transferred across properly. National Insurance credits were previously known as Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) up until 2010.

HRP reduced the number of qualifying years you need to claim the state pension for parents and carers, and was largely claimed by stay-at-home mums, or anyone who took time away from paid work to look after a child or a person with a long term disability or illness.

But if someone claimed Child Benefit and didn't put their National Insurance number on the form, their HRP credits may not have been transferred across to their National Insurance record. As a result, this could have impacted how much state pension they're receiving. It is estimated 210,000 people may have been affected, but of this figure, 60,000 are now deceased and their family will be able to make a claim for any money owed.

Those over pension age are being contacted first, and ministers have previously said the majority of those impacted by the error will be contacted by April next year. The average payout is £5,000, but it some cases it can run into tens of thousands of pounds. One woman told MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis how she was able to reclaim a life-changing £82,000.

A DWP spokesperson said: “The action we are taking now will correct historical underpayments made by successive governments. We are fully committed to addressing these errors, not identified under previous governments, as quickly as possible. We have set up a dedicated team and devoted significant resources towards completing this.”

How do I check if I’ve been underpaid?

The main rules for qualifying for a year of HRP from 1978 are:

You had to be receiving child benefit in your own name (not that of a spouse or partner)

Your child was under 16 for the whole of the financial year in question

You were not paying the married woman’s "reduced stamp"

If you suspect you have missed out, you should first check your state pension and your National Insurance record. For those who reached pension age after April 5, 2010, any year of HRP/credits should be showing as a complete year on your NI record. If not, then you may have missed out.

For those who reached pension age on or before April 5, 2010, HRP was recorded in a different way and you need to phone the NI helpline to check if there is HRP on your record. The Government has also created an online checker tool on Gov.uk to see if you’re likely to be eligible to make a claim. To claim missing HRP up until March 2010, you need to fill in the form CF411.