Thousands of older women are being urged to review their National Insurance records after longstanding administrative errors involving Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) affected some State Pension entitlements. The issue centres on missing HRP records, which can reduce the number of qualifying years credited towards a State Pension.
According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), historic HRP recording errors remain the largest single cause of State Pension underpayments arising from National Insurance contribution records. The government says work is continuing to identify people whose records need to be corrected and to pay any arrears that are due.
Missing Home Responsibilities Protection Records Remain at the Centre of the Issue
Home Responsibilities Protection was introduced to protect the State Pension rights of parents and carers between 6 April 1978 and 5 April 2010. It reduced the number of qualifying years needed for the full Basic State Pension while people were out of work caring for children or disabled individuals. From April 2010, the scheme was replaced by National Insurance credits.
According to the DWP’s Fraud and Error in the Benefit System report for the financial year ending 2026, National Insurance contribution errors continued to be the leading cause of State Pension underpayments. The report states that historic HRP recording errors accounted for “£6 in every £10 underpaid due to Contributions”.
State Pension underpayments were estimated at 0.3 per cent, or £390 million, in the year to April 2026, compared with £430 million in the previous financial year. The report also states that National Insurance contribution errors represented 0.1 per cent of total State Pension expenditure, while the proportion of underpaid State Pension claims remained at five in every 100 claims.
According to GOV.UK, the issue mainly affects women who claimed Child Benefit before May 2000 but whose National Insurance number was not correctly linked to their Child Benefit claim. In some cases, eligible years of HRP were therefore not recorded on National Insurance records, resulting in incomplete contribution histories and lower State Pension payments.
Government Correction Programme Continues as Eligible People Are Encouraged to Check Their Records
The DWP and HM Revenue & Customs are continuing the Legal Entitlements and Administrative Practice (LEAP) correction exercise to identify people whose National Insurance records may be incomplete. The programme includes correcting records, issuing backdated payments where appropriate and adjusting ongoing State Pension awards.
According to HMRC, more than 370,000 letters have been sent, mainly to women, encouraging recipients to check whether they are receiving the correct amount of State Pension. HMRC is using National Insurance records to identify people who may have qualified for HRP between 1978 and 2010 but whose records do not show that protection.
People who think they may have missing HRP years can check their National Insurance record and State Pension forecast through GOV.UK. Government guidance states that applications may be possible for people who received Child Benefit, shared childcare with a partner who claimed the benefit, cared for a sick or disabled person under the qualifying rules, or, during specified years, were foster carers or kinship carers in Scotland.
The guidance also confirms that people can still apply for HRP if they believe qualifying years are missing from their National Insurance record, including some who have already reached State Pension age, although any increase in pension payments for previous years will not usually be made in every circumstance.
