Thousands of mothers across the UK are due back payments on their State Pensions following historical record-keeping mistakes linked to Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP). The latest Government Fraud and Error report for 2026 confirms that National Insurance slips remain the chief cause of State Pension underpayments, accounting for £6 in every £10 underpaid. This means a significant number of people who took time out of work to raise families are receiving lower weekly pension payments than they earned.
What is HRP and Who is Affected?
HRP was a scheme designed to protect the State Pension rights of parents and caregivers. The issue mainly affects women who claimed Child Benefit before May 2000 and whose National Insurance number was not properly linked to their claim. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) stated: "Some people have not had all eligible years of HRP recorded on their National Insurance records and so have an incomplete record affecting their State Pension entitlement."
How to Check and Claim
The Government has created a digital checking system to help individuals see if their national records are accurate. Claims can be submitted for complete financial periods between April 6, 1978 and April 5, 2010, if you were receiving financial support for a child under 16. The same process applies if you were looking after an unwell relative or received income support while being a carer. People who spent time fostering or acting as a kinship carer in Scotland between 2003 and 2010 can also use this service to update their files.
Who Qualified for HRP?
Most parents who provided their official details when registering for financial support had these credits added to their accounts automatically. However, if you reached the official retirement age before April 6, 2008, you cannot transfer these credits from a partner. Married women or widows who opted to pay a reduced rate of contributions (the "small stamp") cannot claim extra credits for those years. The same restriction applies to self-employed women who opted out of paying standard flat-rate contributions.
Special Rules for Carers
For those caring for an unwell friend or relative, claims are restricted to years between April 6, 1978 and April 5, 2002. You must have dedicated at least 35 hours weekly to these duties while the person received specific disability allowances for at least 48 weeks of the financial year after April 6, 1988. If you were already receiving Carer's Allowance, your account would have been updated automatically. Foster parents and kinship carers must apply manually if they were not receiving standard child benefits or earning enough to pay contributions.
Impact and Next Steps
Any valid protection periods accumulated before April 6, 2010 have now been turned into standard retirement credits up to a maximum of 22 years. A full overview of HRP can be found on GOV.UK. Checking the family budget is a weekly ritual for most households, but this historic admin error could mean your retirement fund is lighter than it should be. The DWP encourages all eligible individuals to use the digital checking system to ensure their records are accurate and to claim any missing HRP years.
