The Government is this week writing to mothers who have been shortchanged on their state pension, but tens of thousands of those affected may never get a letter, a former pensions minister warns.
An estimated 210,000 women are missing out on up to £1.3billion in state pension due to holes in their child benefit records, the Government confirmed in July.
HMRC is now launching a letter writing campaign to contact mothers, who are owed an average of £5,000 each, which will run over the next 18 months.
Warning: Steve Webb says: ‘Without the records, it’s going to be a real experiment — like identifying a needle in a haystack’
But the Government has admitted that it cannot identify everyone because crucial HMRC records have been destroyed.
It no longer holds relevant child benefit data that would enable it to determine whether parents have a gap in their records.
Steve Webb, a former pensions minister, who is now a partner at consultancy LCP and also a This is Money columnist, says: ‘Without the records, it’s going to be a real experiment — like identifying a needle in a haystack.
‘You can’t be sure you are going to get a letter, even if you have been underpaid.’
This means that tens of thousands of women are at risk of never recouping the money they are owed.
Last September, it emerged that many parents and carers have also been affected by a major state pension calculation blunder.
This is because credits for time spent at home looking after children or vulnerable people were not added to their National Insurance records.
STEVE WEBB ANSWERS YOUR PENSION QUESTIONS
Since 1978, parents who take time out of work to care for their children should have had credits added to their records, in a system called Home Responsibilities Protection. But these years were not always recorded.
Around 150,000 parents, who are now in their 60s and 70s, and who claimed child benefit between 1978 and 2000, are believed to be affected.
A further 60,000 may be deceased, meaning their beneficiaries will be in line for payouts.
Mr Webb, who has campaigned on this issue for more than a decade, has discovered a mother who has been receiving a smaller state pension than she was due for the past 14 years.
Rita Atkinson, whose name has been changed, suspected she was being shortchanged after hearing about the Government blunder in March, and applied to HMRC to query her weekly £134 state pension.
The 74-year-old was told that she was indeed missing National Insurance credits for several years between 1978 and 1988, and that her state pension should therefore be higher.
Rita, who lives with her husband in Cornwall, was shocked to find she was owed £16,966 and that her state pension would rise by £29.68 a week.
To qualify for compensation, you must have been receiving child benefit in your own name. Your child must have been under 16 for the whole of the financial year in question and you were not paying the married woman’s ‘reduced stamp’.
A Government spokesman says: ‘Our priority is ensuring everyone receives the financial support to which they are entitled, and state pension underpayment rates due to official error remain low at 0.5 per cent of expenditure.
‘Where errors do occur, we are committed to fixing them as quickly as possible.’
Of the 210,000 people affected, the Department for Work and Pensions expects to track down 187,000.
Last week, a senior civil servant at HMRC told MPs that the process of contacting affected parents would begin this month, starting with those over state pension age.
To check if you can make a claim, go to: tax.service.gov.uk/guidance/Check-if-you-are-eligible-to-apply-for-Home-Responsibilities-Protection
