About pension state

famid

Hi , I have received a letter from a pension service telling me that I’m not entitled to a state pension as my national insurance credit less than 10 years . I have been for years on income support them moved to job seeker allowance then to Uc. The claim was by my husband name and I joint him . It was about more than 20 years . My husband is ill for a long time and I am his career. For my knowledge since I was under benefit my national contribution was paid . Any advice for help .
F. Hamid

Holly_Scope

Hi @famid I'm so sorry you've not had a response to this yet. Have you managed to progress any further with this since your original post? It might be worth contacting the pension service to try to find more information about the NI information initially.

famid

Thank you for your reply,I contacted the pension service and HMRC , unfortunately I haven’t got answers for my question . I will write to HMRS to clarify my situation.
I appreciate your help .
Thanks ,

Faten

MW123

@famid

I saw your post and thought this might be worth mentioning, just in case it’s relevant to you.

I understand that not all couples have children, but if you were raising children at any point between 1978 and 2010 and were not in paid work, you should have received National Insurance credits from the government towards your State Pension.

This was through a scheme called Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP). It was designed to protect the pension rights of people, often mothers, who were caring for children and not working during those years.

Before May 2000, Child Benefit forms did not ask for a National Insurance number. So even if Child Benefit was being paid and HRP should have applied, your NI record might not show those years as counting towards your State Pension. This has affected many people, particularly where the father was named as the claimant. If the mother was doing the caring but was not named on the Child Benefit claim, her NI number may never have been recorded, meaning those years were not linked to her pension record, despite her eligibility.

The government introduced a scheme in 2023 after discovering that thousands of people were missing credits. It’s estimated that around £1.2 billion is owed, but uptake has been low, only about 8 per cent of those affected have come forward so far.

If you think this might affect you, it’s worth checking your National Insurance record online to see if any years are missing from the time you were bringing up children. If there are gaps, you will need to contact HMRC, not the Pension Service,  and ask them to review your record. You will need to provide your NI number, the years you were claiming Child Benefit, and whether you or your partner was named as the official claimant.

Once HMRC updates your record if the above applies to you, the DWP can reassess your pension to include any missing years when you were raising children but not in paid work. Many women are missing out on these credits simply because they are not aware they exist.