Missing State Pension Years? Claim Back Your HRP Credits

HRP stands for Home Responsibilities Protection. It was a government scheme that ran from April 1978 to April 2010, designed to protect the State Pension of people, mostly women, who took time out of paid work to raise children or care for someone at home.

If you claimed Child Benefit for a child under 16 during those years, HRP was meant to be added to your National Insurance record automatically, so the time you spent caring did not leave gaps that reduced your pension.

When HRP was replaced by National Insurance credits in 2010, those years were supposed to transfer over automatically. For thousands of women, that did not happen, so their records still show gaps, and they may have been paid a lower State Pension than they are owed as a result.

You may be affected if:

• You claimed Child Benefit at some point between 1978 and 2010 for a child under 16
• You were not working, or had low earnings, during some of those years
• You have reached State Pension age and are now receiving your State Pension
• You may be receiving less than the full State Pension, which can be a sign that credits are missing from your record

Most women affected were born between roughly 1941 and 1959. The simplest way to know for sure is a free eligibility check. It takes a few minutes and there is no obligation whatsoever.

Because in many cases, they do not know who is affected. National Insurance records were not always properly linked to Child Benefit claims, so the government cannot simply look up who is missing credits. That is why people are being asked to check their own records, and why so many women who are owed money still do not know it.

These claims help people check if they may have been underpaid for any years on their State Pension. Until you have been receiving it for at least one full year, we cannot check that. With the current State Pension age being 66, one year later is 67.

These claims help people who have been underpaid on their State Pension. If you are receiving the full, maximum amount, you will not have been underpaid, so will not need to claim, as you would not be eligible.

This is a good thing. It means that you have not been short changed or missing out.

This relates to Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP). HRP was designed to protect your State Pension years if you were looking after children or caring for someone between 1978 and 2010 and not paying full National Insurance.

In some cases, those HRP years were not recorded correctly, which meant fewer qualifying years were counted towards the State Pension. If those years are corrected, it can increase the pension, and if there has been an underpayment, this may result in a backdated payment.

Ask Rose is a pension reclaim specialist. We help women find out whether they have been underpaid their State Pension because of historic government record-keeping errors, and if they have, we handle the claim for them.

We were founded on a simple belief: the State Pension is not a benefit or a gift from the state. It is a legal right, earned through years of work, raising children and caring for loved ones. We are led by Elaine Walker, a claims professional with more than 20 years of experience in legal and financial claims.

We are a UK based team, based in Altrincham, Manchester, and yes, you can talk to a real person over the phone. In a world where so many scams arrive by text and email, we think being able to speak to someone properly matters. Our phone number is 0161 518 0986.

It is completely right to ask. The sad truth is that scammers do target pensioners, and healthy caution is a good thing. So here are the facts you can check for yourself:

• We are a registered UK company. Ask Rose, registered in England, company number 14249975. You can look us up on Companies House.
• We are registered with HMRC as an agent, which means we can deal with HMRC on your behalf. We are an independent company. We are not HMRC, the DWP, or any part of government.
• We work on a no-win, no-fee basis. If your claim is not successful, you pay nothing.
• We will never ask you for bank cards, PINs, passwords, or any payment up front.
• You can read what our clients say about us on Trustpilot, and you can ring our office on 0161 518 0986 any time to check that a message really came from us.

We take the stress and the paperwork off your shoulders. Our process has four simple steps:

• Check: we check whether you are likely to be eligible, based on a few details about you
• Claim: if you are, we submit your claim to HMRC on your behalf
• Correct: if HMRC confirms credits are missing, your National Insurance record is corrected
• Collect: you may receive a back-payment for the years you were underpaid, plus a higher weekly pension going forward

We handle the forms, gather the evidence and manage all the back and forth with the government, so you never have to face it alone.

The easiest way is to start with a free, no-obligation eligibility check. If it looks like credits are missing from your record, we will submit the claim to HMRC for you and manage the whole process from there.

Takes just a few minutes, and there is no obligation. We will ask a few simple questions, such as your year of birth, whether you claimed Child Benefit between 1978 and 2010, and whether you are now receiving your State Pension. Checking will not cost you anything.

Our fee is 29% plus VAT of any back payment you receive. Including VAT, that works out at 34.8% of the back payment in total. We work on a no-win, no-fee basis, so if your claim is not successful, or no back payment is due, you pay nothing at all.

Here is a worked example. The average back payment in the government’s correction exercise has been £8,377*. On a back payment of that size, our fee would be £2,429.33 plus VAT of £485.87, making it £2,915.20 in total, and you would receive £5,461.80.

Just as importantly, our fee applies only to your back payment. Your increased weekly pension going forward is yours in full, for life. We do not take a penny of it, ever. For many women, that ongoing increase adds up to far more over time than the back payment itself.

If you are not eligible for a back payment, then no fee is due.

The initial application on our website can take as little as a couple of minutes to submit a claim to us. Please rest assured that we will be in touch as soon as there is an update to share.

It might, so it is worth knowing about in advance. A back payment counts as taxable income, generally for the years the pension should have been paid, rather than the year you receive it. And because a corrected pension means higher weekly income, it can affect means-tested benefits such as Pension Credit or Housing Benefit.

We cannot give you tax or benefits advice, but we would encourage anyone receiving means-tested benefits to get free guidance, for example from Citizens Advice or Age UK, before deciding how to use a back payment.

Yes. There have been many successful HRP claims, with the average claim value being £8,377*.

We are receiving a high volume of enquiries at this moment in time. Rest assured we will be in touch. You can contact us on 0161 518 0986 if you would like to speak to someone directly.

Having children is not the only criterion. These claims are for HRP (Home Responsibilities Protection), for those who took time from work to care for children or someone with a long-term illness or disability. In many cases, National Insurance contributions for these people were not recorded correctly. These claims ensure that this is corrected. If you are not eligible, it is a good thing, as it means that your NI contributions have been recorded correctly all along.