HMRC took to social media, using platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to alert parents: “If you claimed Child Benefit before May 2000, you may be missing Home Responsibility Protection (HRP) from your National Insurance record.”
The gov.uk website hosts an eligibility checker enabling people to determine whether they are affected and reclaim any state pension potentially missed due to the error.
Home Responsibilities Protection was an element of the previous benefit arrangement, now superseded by National Insurance credits – both designed to fortify the National Insurance records of parents who might have taken career breaks to raise their children, possibly affecting their state pension accumulation.
Claiming even a fraction of the new state pension mandates at least 10 years’ worth of National Insurance contributions, with the full new state pension requiring 35 years.
As a result of the error, it’s possible some individuals lack HRP on their National Insurance record, resulting in discrepancies which might make them fall short of these critical qualifying thresholds.
Parents who applied for Child Benefit between 1978 and 2000 might have also omitted their National Insurance number from the application, which could mean the Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) wasn’t added to their records.
The department has previously stated that a missing HRP “doesn’t automatically mean their State Pension calculation is incorrect”, but it’s likely that those years dedicated to child-rearing could significantly affect your pension.
It’s easy to check your record via the HMRC app or on the gov.uk website, and it only takes a few minutes. If you discover missing payments, you can claim HRP online or by post.
Additionally, there’s an option to transfer HRP to yourself from another person, such as when Child Benefit was registered under a spouse’s name who is already receiving the full state pension.
