Martin Lewis warns women aged 41-90 could be owed thousands by HMRC

Personal finance guru said women who took time off work to care for children between 1978 and 2010 should check if they are owed thousands of pounds

Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning to all women aged 41-90 who have children, cautioning that they could be owed ‘substantial sums’ by HMRC.

The money-saving expert told listeners on his BBC Podcast this week that anyone who stepped back from employment during this period may have been ‘short-changed’ as a result of a significant National Insurance error spanning several years – potentially leaving them thousands of pounds worse off.

His intervention follows HMRC’s decision to stop writing to those potentially affected, meaning people must now pursue any claims on their own.

He explained: “This is about a state pension error. The reason that I’m doing it now is not because it’s new – it isn’t new – this has been around for quite a long time and the government were contacting the potentially hundreds of thousands of primarily women aged between 41 and 90 – it isn’t only women it’s primarily women and it’ll generally be of that age.

“They could be the victim of a state pension error that could mean they’re owed a fortune. The government was contacting them but then Steve Webb former pensions minister got in touch with us, with me, and said ‘they’ve stopped contacting them – they’re no longer trying to rectify this’. They’re not trying to rectify it so I’m trying to rectify it by getting it out there.”

The Money Saving Expert founder emphasised the potentially life-altering consequences, citing listener Cilla who reached out to him saying: ‘I’ve just received 15 years back pay from HMRC of £31,674 for underpayment of my state pension.’ This matter could impact anyone who left work to look after a child or someone with a long-term disability across a 32-year period, reports Wales Online.

He explained: “From 1978 to 2010 the government had a system in place to protect state pension entitlement for those people who didn’t earn enough to accrue a state pension through paid work because they had taken time off work to look after their children or someone with a long-term disability.

“Clearly in that time period it was mainly women who were doing that. It was called Home Responsibilities Protection and it should have been awarded automatically to those claiming child benefit or who’d received income support throughout a full tax year while they were caring for someone with a long-term illness.

“It effectively gave you the national insurance contributions you would have otherwise got. You need around 30 years of national insurance contributions to get the full state pension. If you’re short of years you don’t get the full state pension.

“if you’re missing 15 years, as that case study was, it’s a huge amount of money because the state pension once you get to retirement age it you’re in it.”

Mr Lewis explained to listeners which individuals were most likely to be affected by the mistake: “Who is most likely to be affected? Women currently between the age of 41 and 90, though it’s mainly women of the age of 60s and 70s.

“But it could be anyone 41-90 who took time away from paid work to look after a child or a person with a long-term disability at any point between 1978 and 2010 who claimed child benefit or income support for the first time before May 2000.

“So effectively your kids were born before May 2000. You go onto Gov.uk, you find your state pension forecast and you look if you’re entitled to the full state pension years. If you’re not then you need to check your gaps in national insurance years which you can also do on gov.uk.

“If there are gaps in your record from 1978 to 2010 these were the years you took off work to care for a child or someone with a long-term health condition. You may be missing Home Responsibilities Protection. At that point we’re getting technical in what you need to do. Go and look it up there are good guides online on what to do next.

“It’s worth checking, it’s huge money, these mainly women have been done over by a system error.”

More details on the Gov.uk website here. To listen to the podcast click here.

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