The tax authority said it will continue in its efforts to raise awareness of the issue
06:00, 02 Aug 2025Updated 07:53, 02 Aug 2025
HMRC has been writing to people who may have been underpaid their state pension(Image: Getty)
HMRC has spoken out about its campaign to contact people who could be owed thousands of pounds in state pension payments. The group has been writing to people who may have been underpaid due to missing Home Responsibilities Protection from their National Insurance record.
The average arrears payment was £8,377, as of March 2025. Consumer advocate Martin Lewis, founder of Money Saving Expert, recently urged people to check if they were owed cash because of the issue, particularly as HMRC has now stopped writing to people who may be affected.
HMRC was asked for an update on its work to contact those who may have been affected.
A government spokesperson said: “We’re determined to help people who’ve been left out of pocket due to historical errors which are no fault of their own.
“That’s why we wrote to more than 370,000 people potentially affected, and launched an online tool to help people check if they can claim.
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“We ran an extensive campaign to raise awareness of the issue and will continue regular communications to get people to check their National Insurance record.”
What was the Home Responsibilities Protection scheme?
Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) was a scheme that ran from 1978 to 2010. It was designed to make sure your National Insurance (NI) contributions were added to your record, which helps build up your state pension entitlement, in cases where a person was out of working caring for a child or for a sick or disabled person.
In some cases, HRP was missing from people’s records, meaning their NI contributions and subsequent state pension payments were lower than they should have been.
This issue mostly affects women who took time out of work to raise their children, but anyone who otherwise cared for a person during this period could be affected.
State pensioners have been urged to check if they are owed thousands of pounds(Image: Getty)
If you think you were missing HRP, you can apply for it to be added to your record on the Government website.
HMRC was also asked to explain what happens when HRP is added to someone’s NI record.
The group said: “If someone has a period of HRP added as a result of an application, first HMRC will determine the number of years of National Insurance that should be added to their record.
“DWP will then apply this to the individual’s state pension eligibility and determine what impact (if any) it will have on their state pension payments.”
If you apply for HRP and you disagree with the decision and how it affects your state pension, if the dispute relates to the number of years on your record, you should contact HMRC. If the issue relates to your state pension entitlement, you should contact DWP.