Problems with Universal Credit awarding National Insurance Credits

Former_MSE_Amalia

Hi there, 

I'm on the Money team and am back from maternity leave covering benefits and pensions. 

We have had a handful of readers get in touch with us concerned that their NI credits awarded via Universal Credit are missing. We understand that a relatively new system was put in place to automate this and want to get a sense of whether it's now working or not. 

If you have had this issue please let me know. 

If you have been a Universal Credit claimant at any point, you should have National Insurance credits for the weeks where you claimed UC. If you are unsure, you can check your NI record via Gov.uk here: Check your National Insurance record - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

MSE Amalia 

HillStreetBlues

MSE_Amalia said:

Hi there, 

I'm on the Money team and am back from maternity leave covering benefits and pensions. 

We have had a handful of readers get in touch with us concerned that their NI credits awarded via Universal Credit are missing. We understand that a relatively new system was put in place to automate this and want to get a sense of whether it's now working or not. 

If you have had this issue please let me know. 

If you have been a Universal Credit claimant at any point, you should have National Insurance credits for the weeks where you claimed UC. If you are unsure, you can check your NI record via Gov.uk here: Check your National Insurance record - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

MSE Amalia 

Where do you get that understanding from?
Last I read about it (3 weeks ago) there was no fix

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-11701705/Shock-cover-state-pension-failures-Universal-Credit-claimants-exposed.html

Letters and an email from junior DWP staff to our readers - detailed in full below - disclose:

- It is a longstanding and well known issue that there is no working system for automatically updating Universal Credit claimants' NI credits;

- There is no time scale for getting this sorted out;

- Currently only those within four months of reaching state retirement age are getting their records manually corrected.

rangout

Just checked mine, still nothing

Former_MSE_Amalia

HillStreetBlues said:

MSE_Amalia said:

Hi there, 

I'm on the Money team and am back from maternity leave covering benefits and pensions. 

We have had a handful of readers get in touch with us concerned that their NI credits awarded via Universal Credit are missing. We understand that a relatively new system was put in place to automate this and want to get a sense of whether it's now working or not. 

If you have had this issue please let me know. 

If you have been a Universal Credit claimant at any point, you should have National Insurance credits for the weeks where you claimed UC. If you are unsure, you can check your NI record via Gov.uk here: Check your National Insurance record - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

MSE Amalia 

Where do you get that understanding from?
Last I read about it (3 weeks ago) there was no fix

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-11701705/Shock-cover-state-pension-failures-Universal-Credit-claimants-exposed.html

Letters and an email from junior DWP staff to our readers - detailed in full below - disclose:

- It is a longstanding and well known issue that there is no working system for automatically updating Universal Credit claimants' NI credits;

- There is no time scale for getting this sorted out;

- Currently only those within four months of reaching state retirement age are getting their records manually corrected.

Hi there, you're right - I was being a bit generous to the DWP.

On 13 December it said: The technical issues referenced were identified, and DWP have taken the steps to correct them

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-12-07/105392

I am trying to gather examples whether this has been corrected and how the system is (or isn't) working in reality. I'd like to get a good tranche of examples to take to them. Have about 3-4 so far. 

Former_MSE_Amalia

rangout said:

Just checked mine, still nothing

This is interesting (and sadly expected). Could I message you privately to get some details, I'm gathering examples to take to them to show that the fixes haven't happened. I'm on: amalia.illgner@moneysavingexpert.com. 

calcotti

Saying they are taking measures doesn’t mean they completed a fix. I think they are still working on it.

rangout

MSE_Amalia said:

rangout said:

Just checked mine, still nothing

This is interesting (and sadly expected). Could I message you privately to get some details, I'm gathering examples to take to them to show that the fixes haven't happened. I'm on: amalia.illgner@moneysavingexpert.com. 

I migrated to UC on 2018 and there's been no contributions since then. If you need specific details let me know

HillStreetBlues

I think another question should be, 

Is anyone that is getting UC had their Class 3 National Insurance contributions automatically credited?

So finding out if anyone's have been.

Muttleythefrog

My partner isn't getting her class 3 credits added (and have again just checked) and we have mentioned this to U/C who gave us a response (below, at end of December). I'm getting my credits but possibly because I also get Contribution based ESA.

(On a separate issue it took us over a year to gain access to her NI records online because we could not verify her using the old landline number initially the account was set up with (and you cannot change such information without access)... and workarounds never worked including calling for assistance as they lacked sufficient security questions due to her being a foreign national. Ridiculous. When it comes to government departments and IT systems they always seem to be badly designed, clearly improperly tested, and difficult to basically correct... and job titles like 'service innovation leader' inspire little hope of anything beyond buck passing talking shops and people justifying their relatively pointless existence)

I have had a response back from the service innovation leaders. Universal Credit are aware of the problem. They have stated the following:-

Claimants outside 4 months of state pension age should be reassured that there is no risk to their entitlement for for state pension at this stage. Universal Credit are working on a solution to automatically update HMRC and further details will be shared in due course.

NedS

Muttleythefrog said:

My partner isn't getting her class 3 credits added (and have again just checked) and we have mentioned this to U/C who gave us a response (below, at end of December). I'm getting my credits but possibly because I also get Contribution based ESA.

You should be able to check if you are getting yours. If you look back at each previous  year, it will tell you how many weeks credits you've received in that year - if you are getting credits for both ESA and UC, it should show 104 weeks credits. If you are only getting credits from ESA and not UC, it will only show 52 weeks credits. Assuming you've claimed benefits for all 52 weeks of the year.

I don't think the issue affects everyone, but trying to get firm information out of DWP on the issue is not easy.

Former_MSE_Amalia

calcotti said:

Saying they are taking measures doesn’t mean they completed a fix. I think they are still working on it.

You're right - except  Guy Opperman confirmed in December 2022 that this automatic system would be “fully operational” by January 2023. So this is what we're holding them to, their own statement.