State Pension age and claimed Universal Credit - PLEASE READ

Former_MSE_Amalia

Hi there, 


I am on the Money team at MSE.

We have had a handful of readers get in touch with us concerned that their NI credits awarded via Universal Credit are missing. 

This becomes a serious issue once you hit state pension age and claim your pension, as you risk getting less than your entitlement if you're missing full qualifying years due to missing NI credits that you were due via UC. 

You should have National Insurance credits for the time period 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)

We want to hear from you if: 

• you claimed Universal Credit at any point
  
  AND
  
  
• Are now of state pension age 
  
  AND 
  
  
• Are missing your UC National Insurance Credits - you can check your NI record via Gov.uk here: Check your National Insurance record - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
  
  AND 
  
  
• Are not getting the full state pension 

PLEASE GET IN TOUCH 

MSE Amalia 

HillStreetBlues

If you are looking for people over pension age,  then also try the Pensions, annuities & retirement planning forum.
I feel people that are not getting their full pension would post on that forum.

calcotti

Amalia. Are you aware of any people receiving SP based on incomplete NI record resulting from not having NI credits from UC? Whilst the failure to record NI credits in a timely fashion is a longstanding known problem DWP have always maintained that the records are corrected within a few months prior to reaching pension age.

Newcad

Just to note that it is not only UC where this problem of  'missing' NI credits happens.

'Missing' NI credits has also been a long term problem with ESA as well, so those still on ESA should also check their NI records using the links given above.

PS. I was in this situation myself, on checking my record I found that over 6 years worth of NI credits for ESA had not been been notified by the DWP to HMRC.
A complaint to DWP quickly got them credited as the should have been and my NI record corrected.

I have heard from many others who found the same problem when they checked their NI records.

poppy12345

Newcad said:

'Missing' NI credits has also been a long term problem with ESA as well, so those still on ESA should also check their NI records using the links given above.

I've been claiming ESA for 10 years and never had any issues with my NI credits.

Newcad

I did a thread about it on a disability forum, many of those who checked reported on that thread that their NI credits due for ESA had also been missed.

Of course most of the ones who checked and found no problem with their NI credits would not have reported that on the thread, although a few did.

From what I could gather (for ESA at least) the credits are something that should be set up when you first claim, and if it isn't set up then it won't be corrected until you check/notice yourself and complain.
I don't know for sure but would suspect that something similar is happening in UC

HillStreetBlues

While on ESA for over 9 years I never had an issue with NI credits  either.

rangout

Newcad said:

I did a thread about it on a disability forum, many of those who checked reported on that thread that their NI credits due for ESA had also been missed.

Of course most of the ones who checked and found no problem with their NI credits would not have reported that on the thread, although a few did.

From what I could gather (for ESA at least) the credits are something that should be set up when you first claim, and if it isn't set up then it won't be corrected until you check/notice yourself and complain.
I don't know for sure but would suspect that something similar is happening in UC

Some of us on UC have complained, but we've been told it will be corrected once we reach pension age!

Former_MSE_Amalia

calcotti said:

Amalia. Are you aware of any people receiving SP based on incomplete NI record resulting from not having NI credits from UC? Whilst the failure to record NI credits in a timely fashion is a longstanding known problem DWP have always maintained that the records are corrected within a few months prior to reaching pension age.

This is what we are investigating. So far we gather that there's been a manual fix, as you say, a few months before reaching pension age. We would like to verify this with real examples of people having had success or otherwise.