HMRC posting out letters to UK households which mean 'you are owed £5,000'

HMRC is writing to thousands of people as they could be owed £5,000 or more. Women in their 60s and 70s are impacted if they claimed Child Benefit between 1978 and 2000, after their National Insurance credits were not transferred across properly.

National Insurance credits were previously known as Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) up until 2010. HRP reduced the number of qualifying years you need to claim the state pension for parents and carers. Anyone who is affected could be owed an average of £5,000 each.

A DWP spokesperson said: “The action we are taking now will correct historical underpayments made by successive governments. We are fully committed to addressing these errors, not identified under previous governments, as quickly as possible. We have set up a dedicated team and devoted significant resources towards completing this.”

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Steve Webb, a former pensions minister, replied: "Over the coming months, tens of thousands of women will be receiving letters from HMRC like the one that your mother has received. For most this will be good news, resulting in them getting a higher pension and possibly a backdated lump sum. But you are right to suggest that in your mother's case she should think carefully before responding.

"These letters relate to potential errors in people's National Insurance records for time spent out of paid work raising children." Speaking in the Commons earlier this year back in February, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Nigel Huddleston MP said: "HMRC started contacting potentially impacted customers from September 2023, prioritising those above state pension age.

"They aim to identify and contact the majority of individuals who may have been affected over the next 18 months so that those eligible receive any arrears payments as quickly as possible." Of the 210,000 people affected, it is estimated around 60,000 are now deceased and family will be able to make a claim for any money owed.