Martin Lewis says parents with children 1978-2010 could get £5,000

Personal finance expert Martin Lewis has revealed pensioners could be owed tens of thousands of pounds due to an administrative error. Speaking on his BBC podcast, Mr Lewis explained that anyone who had children during a 32-year window could be entitled to backdated payments. The money-saving guru disclosed that individuals might be eligible for significant sums, with one person telling him she was paid £31,000. He explained: "This is an important heads up about a state pension error that mainly affects women between the ages of 40 and 90, and especially those in their 60s and 70s, because it's for people who took time off work between 1978 and 2010 to look after their children or to care for someone who is long-term disabled. "You were meant to have got a thing called Home Responsibilities Protection, which should have given you National Insurance years to replace the ones you weren't getting by working, and you need those National Insurance years to get a full state pension. "But it's possible over 100,000 women didn't. And while the government had been trying to contact those women, it has stopped doing so now, so the onus is on you. To show you how big this could be, Cilla got in touch with me and said, 'I've just received 15 years back pay from HMRC of £31,674 for underpayment of my pension, thank you'." HMRC is using National Insurance (NI) records to identify as many people as possible who may have qualified for HRP between 1978 and 2010 but have no HRP recorded on their NI record, and is sending out letters. The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) estimates it has underpaid pensioners between £300m and £1.5billion in state pension due to errors in recording Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP). Accounting firm Robson Laidler has suggested that individuals could be owed roughly £5,000 in backdated payments on average. HRP was a scheme designed to protect parents' and carers' State Pension entitlements and was replaced by NI credits from April 6, 2010. HMRC is using National Insurance (NI) records to trace as many people as possible who may have qualified for HRP between 1978 and 2010 but have no HRP on their NI record, and is sending letters to some. Mr Lewis added: "So what you need to do is you need to go onto gov.uk to see if you're projected to get the full state pension. If you're not, you need to see when your gaps in years were, were they between 1978 and 2010, and if so were they the years that you were not working to look after your children or someone who had long-term disabilities. If they were, you need to go and do your research on Home Responsibilities Protection, because you could be owed money." HM Revenue and Customs has stated: "HMRC will send you a letter if we think you may have missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP). We want to help you make sure you receive the right amount of State Pension, so we're asking you to check if you were eligible for HRP between 1978 and 2010. You may have been eligible if you received Child Benefit for a child under 16. "The letter will tell you how you can check if you're eligible to claim missing Home Responsibilities Protection and how to make a claim." A Robson Laidler representative stated: "It is estimated tens of thousands of people are due an average of £5,000 in back payments. HMRC and DWP are also conducting a wider campaign to ensure that everyone who may be eligible is aware of the corrections exercise." If HRP is absent from someone's NI record, it doesn't automatically mean their State Pension calculation is incorrect, but it might be, particularly if they took considerable time away from work to bring up a family. The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury has declared: "The State Pension is the foundation of state support for people in retirement. We are urging people to check their National Insurance records to make sure they will receive the pension they deserve." A Robson Laidler spokesperson commented: "We would therefore advise checking your own NI records rather than waiting for a letter from DWP/HMRC to arrive. There is no time limit for applying for HRP if it has not been awarded. "Anyone who may have claimed Child Benefit before May 2000, when it was not mandatory to provide your National Insurance Number on your claim, may not have the correct number of years for State Pension purposes on their NI record, if you first made a claim after May 2000, you will not be affected." Should you need to apply for HRP, or if you believe your record to be incorrect you should fill in form CF411 'application form Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP)'. For more information or advice about your HRP application, you should contact HMRC here . You may still be able to apply for HRP if, for full tax years (6 April to 5 April) between 1978 and 2010, you were either: sharing the care of a child under 16 with a partner you lived with and they claimed Child Benefit instead of you - you may be able to transfer their HRP caring for a sick or disabled person You can also apply if, for a full tax year between 2003 and 2010, you were either: a foster carer caring for a friend or family member’s child (‘kinship carer’) in Scotland Any HRP you had for full tax years before 6 April 2010 was automatically converted into National Insurance credits, if you needed them, up to a maximum of 22 qualifying years.