![\"Martin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_GettyImages-1519899935.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMore than 100,000 people are feared to have missed out on an old version of National Insurance credits, known as Home Responsibilities Protection<\/p>\n
Martin Lewis is founder of MoneySavingExpert.com<\/p>\n
A fan of Martin Lewis has revealed how she reclaimed more than \u00a325,000 following a major state pension error.<\/p>\n
More than 100,000 people are feared to have missed out on an old version of National Insurance credits, known as Home Responsibilities Protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n HRP reduced the number of qualifying years you need on your National Insurance record to claim the state pension.<\/p>\n It means if you missed out on HRP, you could have incorrect gaps in your National Insurance record – and this could mean you are being underpaid your state pension. HRP was replaced by National Insurance credits in 2010.<\/p>\n Those who are being encouraged to check if they have been affected are those who took time away from paid work to look after a child or someone who was seriously ill between 1978 and 2010, and who claimed Child Benefit for the first time before May 2000.<\/p>\n Get the best deals and tips from Mirror Money<\/p>\n WHATSAPP GROUP: Get money news and top deals straight to your phone by joining our Money WhatsApp group here<\/a>. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice<\/a>.<\/p>\n NEWSLETTER: Or sign up to the Mirror’s Money newsletter here<\/a> for all the best advice and shopping deals straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Child Benefit forms submitted before May 2000 did not include a National Insurance number, so this led to HRP not being correctly applied to National Insurance records.<\/p>\n The issue largely affects women in their 60s or 70s. You may also have been affected if you stayed at home, but your partner claimed Child Benefit.<\/p>\n Sheila, a retired tailor from Lincolnshire in her late 70s, had taken time out from work to care for her two children and heard about HRP through the Martin Lewis podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n She has since received a massive \u00a325,270 in back payments, as well as an increase in her state pension of over \u00a3160 a month.<\/p>\n Sheila told MoneySavingExpert.com<\/a>: “I thought it was interesting because my pension was a lot lower than everybody else that I knew of.\u201d<\/p>\n If you have been affected, the amount of money you could get back depends on how much you’ve been underpaid by – and for how long.<\/p>\n The latest data from the Department for Work and Pensions<\/a> (DWP<\/a>) showed 12,379 people have received an average of \u00a38,377 in back payments between January 2024 and March 2025.<\/p>\n If you believe you may be owed money, you should first check your state pension<\/a> forecast or statement. The full new state pension is worth \u00a3230.25 per week, rising to \u00a3241.30 from April 2026.<\/p>\n The old basic state pension is \u00a3176.45 per week, rising to \u00a3184.90 from April 2026.<\/p>\n If you are not receiving the full amount, the next step is to check your National Insurance record<\/a>. For the new state pension, you typically need 30 years of National Insurance credits to get the full state pension.<\/p>\n The Government has also created an online checker tool on GOV.UK<\/a>. You can make a claim for missing HRP by using the online service on GOV.UK<\/a>, or by filling out this form<\/a> and posting it back to HMRC.<\/p>\n It is believed 43,000 people who are due money back are now deceased, but their families can claim on their behalf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 100,000 people are feared to have missed out on an old version of National Insurance credits,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[4029,84,4180,4176,2897,4178,4174,4175,2221,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-511588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-benefits","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-child-benefit","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-martin-lewis","13":"tag-pensions","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-state-pension","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}