Martin Lewis warns older people not to bin State Pension letter that contains details of back payments
13.10.2023 - 09:53
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Martin Lewis has warned hundreds of thousands of people, mostly women over State Pension age, not to bin a letter they may receive over the coming weeks thinking it’s a scam - it’s not, and could be worth a small fortune. The letters contain details about potential State Pension underpayments and could be worth tens of thousands of pounds.
The financial guru took to social media to share the details, urging his 2.4 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) to “spread the word” about this “important” letter, which is being issued by Hm Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Martin briefly explained how people who took time off work to look after their children between 1978 and 2010 may have been underpaid their State Pension.
The issue affects mostly women in their 60s and 70s who may have Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) missing from their National Insurance (NI) record. This was a scheme designed to help protect parents’ and carers’ entitlement to the State Pension and was replaced by NI credits from April 6, 2010.
HMRC is using NI records to identify as many people as possible who might have been entitled to HRP between 1978 and 2010 and have no HRP on their NI record. After May 2000, it became mandatory to include a NI number on claims so people claiming after this point will not have been affected.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is working with HMRC to identify affected pensioners and estimates 210,000 people may have been underpaid a total of £1.3 billion. However, the DWP cannot start to correct these cases until HMRC, which administers both National Insurance and Child Benefit records, corrects the affected NI records.
HMRC recently said it is contacting those affected this month in order of how close they are
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