Topping up pension missing years by using Home Responsibility Protection (HRP)

mikeb222

I was told this was possible by transferring my wifes HRP for 16 years of child benefit from the 80s, so completed the form and sent it in. I have a letter saying that 16 years as now been transferred to myself, but can't see any changes to my pension years shortfall of 9 years. I thought this would lead to NI credits being applied to my account. The years transferred are from 1982 to 1998. My last full NI year was 2014/15. Do these HRP credits get applied to my last 9 years or are they useless? 

p00hsticks

I don't know for sure, but I would imagine that the credits would transfer across to the same years as for which they were originally creditted. If that's the case, and those years were already full then it wouldn't make any difference to your forecast ? 

Were you not working yourself (or on benefits to give you credits) during 1982 to 1998 ?

There must be plenty of people accumulating two full sets of NI each year by both working and claiming a benefit such as Child Benefit or Universal Credit, but I'm pretty sure that that wouldn't reduce the number of years required to qualify for a State Pension.    
 

molerat

Do these HRP credits get applied to my last 9 years

No, they get applied to the years in which they were earned.  If those years were already filled or you already had 30 or 35, depending on your circumstances, pre 2016 years then they would not add to your pension amount.

mikeb222

So why have they transferred them if there was no point? I don't understand. Will my wife now have 16 years missing from her pension?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

mikeb222 said:

So why have they transferred them if there was no point? I don't understand. Will my wife now have 16 years missing from her pension?

You said this in your op, did you ask for them to be moved or not 🤔

so completed the form and sent it in

molerat

mikeb222 said:

So why have they transferred them if there was no point? I don't understand. Will my wife now have 16 years missing from her pension?

Because you asked them to and, as the parent, you have an equal right to those credits.  There are lots of things in the tax world that are allowable but may not be beneficial.

She will need to check her pension forecast to see if it has had any effect.  I suspect you could do the same in reverse if necessary.

mikeb222

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

mikeb222 said:

So why have they transferred them if there was no point? I don't understand. Will my wife now have 16 years missing from her pension?

You said this in your op, did you ask for them to be moved or not 🤔

so completed the form and sent it in

So if I ask them to fill in my gaps, they will one presumes?

mikeb222

molerat said:

mikeb222 said:

So why have they transferred them if there was no point? I don't understand. Will my wife now have 16 years missing from her pension?

Because you asked them to and, as the parent, you have an equal right to those credits.  There are lots of things in the tax world that are allowable but may not be beneficial.

She will need to check her pension forecast to see if it has had any effect.  I suspect you could do the same in reverse if necessary.

You mean transfer them back?

mikeb222

Also, there is nowhere I can find that states transferring HRP is only for the same years as you have any gaps in your own NI record, so all very confusing! They make it sound like they are movable.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

mikeb222 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

mikeb222 said:

So why have they transferred them if there was no point? I don't understand. Will my wife now have 16 years missing from her pension?

You said this in your op, did you ask for them to be moved or not 🤔

so completed the form and sent it in

So if I ask them to fill in my gaps, they will one presumes?

As I understand it the only years that can be filled in this situation are for the years that the HRP credits relate to.

So do you have any gaps in those years??

p00hsticks

mikeb222 said:

Also, there is nowhere I can find that states transferring HRP is only for the same years as you have any gaps in your own NI record, so all very confusing! They make it sound like they are movable.

If by 'moveable' you mean allocating the credits to any random year that needs to be filled rather than directly across to the same one for which the credits were initially earned, then I just can't see it being allowed.  

As I said in my earlier post, there must be plenty of people who are both getting full years NI from working but also earn further credits for the same year via benefits such as Child Benefit or Universal credit. If they could simply decide at a later date to stop working and just have these extra credits allocated to future years, to me it makes a bit of a mockery of the system.