DWP Blunder Leaves Thousands of UK Parents Short-Changed by State Pension Error
A major error by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has left nearly 200,000 parents in the UK missing out on thousands of pounds in retirement funds, and the fallout is far from over.
The issue stems from a miscalculation involving Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP), a scheme that ran from 1978 to 2010, designed to support those claiming Child Benefit or caring for others.
HRP was intended to ease state pension qualification rules by recognising time spent in unpaid care roles, especially by mothers.
But things didn’t go as planned. The DWP has admitted that hundreds of thousands of cases never had the HRP protection properly recorded, meaning many now have incomplete National Insurance records, directly affecting their state pension entitlement.
On average, each affected individual has lost around £5,000.
The scale of the mistake is staggering, 194,000 people impacted, yet only a fraction have been compensated.
The department acknowledged the error back in 2021, but recovery has been sluggish. A damning update shows funds allocated for repayments have been slashed, plummeting from £1.2 billion to just £29.8 million.
The report explains: “Correcting HRP is inherently challenging. The number of people applying to correct their missing HRP has been low.
Substantial numbers of people have not responded to government calls for them to apply to add missing HRP, and the exercise has resulted in much lower activity levels.”
Despite over 370,000 letters being sent out by HMRC since autumn 2023, the actual number of repayments remains shockingly low. In 2024-25, just 12,379 people received underpayment corrections, compared to only 419 the year before.
Faced with poor response rates, the DWP is now shifting to an ongoing programme for repayments rather than a short-term fix, effectively removing any deadline for affected individuals to claim.
Critics are not impressed. “The DWP’s latest report is a hammer blow to over 100,000 mothers who are receiving reduced state pensions because of errors on their National Insurance record,” said former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb.
“The Government’s letter-writing campaign has been a dismal failure, and this was entirely predictable given its reliance on a complicated online claims process.”
Webb added that while further awareness efforts may continue, the Government’s own reporting suggests expectations for success remain “low”.
The Government, however, insists it is committed to fixing the issue: “We are determined to help people who have been left out of pocket as a result of historical errors which are no fault of their own.
That’s why we wrote directly to over 370,000 of those who were potentially affected and launched an online tool to help people check if they needed to claim.
We carried out an extensive campaign to raise awareness of the issue and will continue regular communications to get people to check their National Insurance record.”
Anyone who suspects they’ve been affected can apply for HRP corrections online or by post, and more information is available via the National Insurance helpline at 0300 200 3500.
For now, thousands of UK parents remain unaware they’ve been short-changed. And unless action is taken soon, many may never see the money they’re rightfully owed.
