Brits have been warned of an HMRC letter that could increase their pension pot by thousands of pounds.
HMRC informed state pensioners that they may not receive their full pot due to a mistake in their National Insurance records. MoneySavingExpert issued the warning.
According to Martin Lewis’ website, seniors should not “throw away” the letters believing they are a fraud because they are legitimate.
Pensioners mainly impacted are women who took time off work between 1978 and 2010 to care for their family members.
This is because they’re missing “Home Responsibilities Protection” (HRP). During this time, you could get National Insurance Credits as HRPs – this reduced the number of qualifying years you need to claim state pension.
However, there was an issue with this and the credits were not transferred across correctly which caused people to have gaps in their National Insurance records.
According to HMRC, the average amount owed is around £5,000, but it could be as high as £10,000 depending on how many missing years you have. The letters are being sent out in stages with those over 66 years to receive them first.
The second round of letters set to be sent to those close to the retirement age. If you receive a letter from HMRC about this, then it will be titled “You may be eligible for Home Responsibilities Protection”.
If you have received the letter and checked they are genuine by contacting HMRC, then you will be asked to check whether you were eligible for HRP between 1978 and 2010.
You can do so by going to GOV.UK. It can also be done by mail, but you must first fill out a form on the government website.
The government stated that the total amount underpaid might be over £1.3 billion, affecting 210,000 people.