Home Responsibilities Protection: A pension benefit for carers

Thousands of people, especially women in their sixties and seventies, are missing National Insurance (NI) credits that affect their State Pension.

Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) was introduced in the late seventies to help people who couldn’t build up full National Insurance contributions because they were caring for children or someone with a disability. It was supposed to reduce the number of qualifying years needed for the full State Pension but many of those who should have benefitted from the scheme have been missing out.

While HRP is no longer active, if you took time off work between 1978 and 2010 to care for a child or someone with a long-term illness or disability, you may be owed thousands of pounds in back payments.

Here we explain the ins and outs so you can make sure you or your loved ones aren’t missing out.

What is Home Responsibilities Protection?

HRP is a now-defunct scheme introduced in 1978 that was designed to protect carers’ entitlement to the State Pension.

It was supposed to ensure that those who wouldn’t be able to build up full National Insurance contributions because they were carers wouldn’t be penalised for it.

In a nutshell, HRP worked by reducing the number of qualifying years needed for the full State Pension. So if 30 years of contributions were needed for a full pension, and you spent three of those years caring for a child or disabled adult, HRP should have meant you only needed 27.

However, errors in the calculation of the contributions meant many people never received their entitled protection.

Common issues that caused people to miss out on the National Insurance (NI) credits they were entitled to include missing NI numbers on Child Benefit claims, HRP being credited only to mothers, or incorrect records from HMRC.

Who will be affected?

If you took time off work between 1978 and 2010 to care for a child or someone with a long-term illness or disability, you could be owed £1000s in back payments.

You’re more likely to be affected if:

You’re aged 41–90 (especially women in their 60s and 70s).
You cared for a child or someone with a long-term illness between 1978 and 2010.
You claimed Child Benefit or Income Support before May 2000.
Your partner claimed the Child Benefit while you did the caregiving – before 2000, unless she opted to transfer it HRP would always be credited to the mother regardless of who was doing the caring.
Your NI number was not included on the benefit claim.

How to check if you’re missing out on HRP benefits

Hundreds of thousands of people who have NI gaps when they were carers may not be aware of the benefit that would have reduced the number of qualifying years.

The government was, at one time, contacting people to inform them of the possible error but no more. So it is up to you to check.

There are a few different ways to go about this:

Check your State Pension forecast on the Gov.uk website, or by calling the Future Pension Centre.
Look for gaps in your National Insurance record, especially between 1978 and 2010.
Review your Child Benefit history – especially if your partner claimed it while you did the caring.
Call the National Insurance Helpline on 0300 200 3500 if you’re unsure.

How to claim missing HRP

Even if you didn’t receive a letter from HMRC, you can still claim:

Online via the Government’s service.
By post using a paper application form.

You may need to provide evidence, such as:

Child details for the years you were a stay-at-home parent.
Proof of benefits received by the person you cared for.
Confirmation letters from fostering agencies (if applicable).

Once verified, HMRC will correct your NI record.

What if you’re already drawing your pension?

If you’ve already reached State Pension age and discover you’ve been underpaid due to missing HRP, you will still be able to claim and receive backdated payments.

The backdated payments can be significant – MSE report that one person who contacted them had received £31,674 in arrears after her record was corrected!

If you have any thoughts on this topic, or any other consumer issues you would like us to cover, feel free to get in touch with us at support@resolver.co.uk.