online tool, external<\/a>.<\/p>\nBBC Morning Live<\/p>\n
Monday 8th September 2025<\/p>\n
BBC iPlayer<\/p>\n
One Morning Live viewer has discovered she was owed more than \u00a335,000 in unpaid State Pension after finding out that years she spent at home caring for her child had not been properly recorded.<\/p>\n
Her case highlights a wider problem linked to Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP), a scheme that ran between April 1978 and April 2010. HRP was designed to protect parents and carers who were unable to build up full National Insurance contributions because they were looking after children or caring for someone who was sick or disabled.<\/p>\n
What was HRP?<\/p>\n
Before 2010, you needed 39 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions if you were a woman, or 44 years if you were a man, to receive a full basic State Pension. HRP reduced that number year by year. Each year of HRP removed one year from the total required, up to a maximum of 22 years.<\/p>\n
You could qualify for HRP if you:<\/p>\n
Claimed Child Benefit for a child under 16.<\/p>\n
Were a partner of someone who claimed Child Benefit, while you were the main carer.<\/p>\n
Received Income Support as a carer.<\/p>\n
Looked after someone who was sick or disabled and receiving certain benefits.<\/p>\n
What went wrong?<\/p>\n
In many cases, HRP was not properly recorded on people’s National Insurance records. This means years spent caring were not counted towards their pension entitlement, leading to underpayments when they reached retirement age.<\/p>\n
That is what happened to one Morning Live viewer. She was at home with her child for 13 years during the 1980s and was claiming Child Benefit. HRP should have reduced her required contributions from 39 years to 26 years, allowing her to receive the full State Pension. Because those credits were missing, her pension had been underpaid for 16 years. Once corrected in September 2025, she received a lump sum of over \u00a335,500 and her weekly pension rose from \u00a3120 to \u00a3180.<\/p>\n
How many people are affected?<\/p>\n
When the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) launched a correction scheme in 2023, it estimated that around \u00a31.2 billion was owed to people in missing HRP payments. The government expected that around 90% of those eligible would claim.<\/p>\n
In practice, uptake has been far lower. As of March 2025, only 8% of people affected had come forward, leading to just \u00a3104 million in repayments. That leaves more than \u00a31.1 billion unclaimed.<\/p>\n
Why is uptake so low?<\/p>\n
Research suggests several reasons:<\/p>\n
Many affected are older and not comfortable using online services.<\/p>\n
Some people mistake letters from HMRC for scams.<\/p>\n
Others are put off by fear that they might lose money if they challenge their record.<\/p>\n
The process also relies on individuals identifying that they are eligible, rather than the government automatically correcting records.<\/p>\n
How to check if you are owed money<\/p>\n
If you think you may be affected by HRP underpayments, there are clear steps you can take:<\/p>\n
Call HMRC on 0300 200 3500 and ask to check if you are eligible for Home Responsibilities Protection credits.<\/p>\n
Use the online eligibility checker, external<\/a> provided by the government. From there, you can complete the application either online or by downloading form CF411 and posting it to HMRC.<\/p>\nOnce processed, the Department for Work and Pensions may adjust your pension and contact you with details of any repayment or increase to your weekly amount.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Check if you are eligible for Home Responsibilities Protection right now Home Responsibilities Protection: Could you be owed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-133406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Image caption, <\/p>\n