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Martin Lewis offered the advice on the latest episode of his podcast(Image: ITV)<\/p>\nIf you took time off work from 1978 to 2010 to look after children or someone with a long term disability you could be owed money back due to Government underpaymentsMartin Lewis offered the advice on the latest episode of his podcast(Image: ITV)<\/p>\n
Martin Lewis has given women over the age of 40 ‘an important heads up’ about a State Pension “error” that could mean they are owed \u00a310,000s by HMRC<\/a>. People who took time off work to look after their children between 1978 and 2010 could be owed thousands in National Insurance contributions.<\/p>\n A gap in your National Insurance contributions can result in your State Pension<\/a> being worth less when you retire. Eligible people may have a gap in NI contributions if they were looking after their children and not receiving ‘Home Responsibilities Protection’ when they should have.<\/p>\n The Money Saving Expert is now urging people to check if they are eligible for the boost to their State Pension by earning these contributions back as the Government is no longer contacting people to let them know if they are owed the money.<\/p>\n Speaking on The Martin Lewis<\/a> podcast, he said: “This is an important heads up about a State Pension error that mainly affects women between the ages of 40 and 90 and especially those in their 60s and 70s because it’s for people who took time off work between 1978 and 2010 to look after their children or to care for someone who is long-term disabled.<\/p>\n Never miss a story with the MEN’s daily Catch Up newsletter – get it in your inbox by signing up here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n “You were meant to have got a thing called Home Responsibilities Protection which should have given you National Insurance years to replace the ones you weren’t getting by working.<\/p>\n “And you need those national insurance years to get a full State Pension<\/a>. But it’s possible over a 100,000 women didn’t. And while the government had been trying to contact those women, it has stopped doing so now.<\/p>\n “So the onus is on you. To show you how big this could be, Silla got in touch with me and said, ‘I’ve just received 15 years back pay from HMRC of \u00a331,674 for underpayment of my pension. Thank you.’<\/p>\n “So, what you need to do is you need to go on to gov.uk to see if you’re projected to get the full State Pension. If you’re not, you need to see when your gaps in years were. Were they between 1978 and 2010?<\/p>\n “And if so, were they the years that you were not working to look after your children or someone who or someone who had long-term disabilities. If they were, you need to go and do your research on home responsibilities protection because you could be owed money.”<\/p>\n It comes after recent figures revealed<\/a> there is more than \u00a3800 million owed by the government in State Pension underpayments.<\/p>\n The figures come after the DWP announced in 2021 that they would be checking hundreds of thousands of pension records to see if people have been underpaid.<\/p>\n One of the State Pension correction exercises it is looking into is the missing historic periods of HRP. Between January 8 and September 30, 2024, the exercise identified 5,344 underpayments, with total arrears of around \u00a342 million.<\/p>\n Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n Sir Steve Webb, a former Liberal Democrat pensions minister, who has been exposing State Pension errors, said the amounts paid out under the current HRP exercise are expected to rise sharply as it gathers momentum.<\/p>\n