DWP permanent secretary Peter Schofield spoke before an MP committee (Image: Parliament TV)
The DWP has urged state pensioners to check if they are owed thousands of pounds in back payments. The group warned that « very few people » have come forward to make a claim, after a historical error was uncovered indicating that many claimants have been underpaid.
DWP permanent secretary Peter Schofield told MPs that he fears many state pensioners are still missing out on « the money that they are entitled to ». This is despite HMRC sending out letters to some 370,000 claimants who could be owed cash.
The matter relates to a historical issue where Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) was missing from people’s National Insurance (NI) records. HRP was applied to a person’s NI record to ensure they continued to be credited with NI contributions while they were out of work with caring responsibilities, such as looking after children or caring for a sick or disabled person.
Officials identified that many people were missing HRP from their record, meaning their state pension entitlement was less than it should be. The issue is thought to primarily affect women but could include other caregivers.
After the major error was uncovered, DWP and HMRC collaborated to check people’s records to identify who could be impacted. HMRC sent out letters to 370,018 people to urge them to apply for HRP and get it added to their NI record. This could potentially mean you get back payments from the DWP as well as an increase in their weekly state pension rate.
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But Mr Schofield told the Work and Pensions Committee on Wednesday that sadly relatively few people have come forward to claim their owed cash. DWP figures as of March 2025 showed just over 67,000 applications were made to HMRC, with only 21,878 cases handed on to DWP to be processed.
Just 12,379 cases were paid arrears in the end, with £104million paid out. The average arrears payout was £8,377. Alhough this particular exercise to contact people has ended, Mr Schofield assured the committee they still stand ready to pay out what is due.
‘We have not given up’
He said: « I want to reassure you we have not given up on the efforts. It is just that the number of people coming through was much lower than we had anticipated it being, and therefore holding those staff ready, waiting for cases that did not come in, given the other pressures that we have under way, did not make operational sense. However, the door is still open. »
The top official said the department had done some research into why people were not making a claim. He said: « That suggested that unfortunately some people did not believe the letter, so HMRC did a load of work to reassure people about the letter. It put things on its website to say, ‘If you get a letter like this, this is not a scam’, but people did not necessarily believe it. »
He also said some people who did hear about the underpayments decided not to claim. Mr Schofield said: « Some people said, ‘Well, look, I am perfectly happy with the income I have’. Maybe some people were worried that if they got more state pension it would affect their Pension Credit entitlement and, therefore, their access to other benefits as a result.
« Other people just said, ‘This is such a long time ago. I do not really want to come forward to claim the money that I am entitled to’. »
Who could be affected by the state pension missing HRP issue?
The issue relates to people who may have been entitled to HRP between 1978 and 2010. You should have received HRP automatically if between April 6, 1978 and April 5, 2010, you were awarded either Child Benefit for a child under 16 or Income Support because you were looking after a sick or disabled person and were not available for work. This was not added to some people’s NI records as it should have been.
However, if you put your claim in for HRP after 2000, you will not be affected, as you had to put your NI number on the form from then on. Mr Schofield reiterated that they still want people to claim what they are owed.
He said: « We continue to work on this. The system is ready to go. When people do claim, if people come forward, people are there to deal with the claim.
« We are doing everything we can, and I want to reassure the committee that the LEAP [Legal Entitlements and Administrative Practice] exercise, in terms of standing a large number of people ready to go, has ended but the access to this system is there and will continue to be so. » You can apply for HRP through the Government website.
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