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Home Responsibility Protection

My wife is 76 so receiving the lower state pension. Reading Martins advice regarding HRP we went online to see her National Insurance record to find that years 1975 to 1990 show as “year is not full.” Our son was born in March 1975 but our records regarding Child Benefit have been mislaid probably during house moves. We wrote to HMRC in July asking for confirmation of her claim record and to this date we have not had an answer. Today we spoke to HMRC and were told that records up to about 2010 regarding child benefit have been deleted and they could not offer any help regarding any possible claim regarding HRP.
Any advice on how proceed from here would be most welcome, how do we approach HMRC they could not give us any advice during our telephone call. Many thanks

Comments

  • xylophone
    xylophone Posts: 46,089
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    Is your wife receiving at least the full basic SP (£176.45 a week)?
  • Yes she is
  • Marcon
    Marcon Posts: 16,460
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    Has she actually made a formal application, as suggested when you asked about this a couple of years ago: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6479952/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp#latest
    Googling on your question might have been both quicker and easier, if you're only after simple facts rather than opinions!  
  • xylophone
    xylophone Posts: 46,089
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    edited 8 October 2025 at 2:30PM
    See
    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80353555/#Comment_80353555

    I queried the amount of your wife's  BSP and referred you to 

    https://www.gov.uk/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp/what-youll-get#:~:text=Home Responsibilities Protection ( HRP ) reduced,a man 44 qualifying years

    If you reached State Pension age before 6 April 2010

    Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) reduced the number of qualifying years you needed to get the full basic State Pension by up to 22 years.

    To get a full basic State Pension a woman needed 39 qualifying years and a man 44 qualifying years.

    You have now confirmed that despite having only 27  Qualifying Years your wife has a full BSP. 

    Her last letter from DWP does actually show  (first line) BSP  £176.45?

  • molerat
    molerat Posts: 36,589
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    For pre 2010 retirees the NI record, which is maintained by HMRC, would not show anything as HRP did not provide credits and would be used in a DWP back office operation when calculating the pension

    Never associate with idiots on their own level, because, being an intelligent man, you'll try to deal with them on their level - and on their level they'll beat you every time.

    Being hated by idiots is the price you pay for not being one of them.

    Jean Cocteau 1889-1963

  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 121,945
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    Yes she is
    HRP only gave basic state pension qualification.  It didn't give any additional pension qualification (e.g. SERPS or S2P).  
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • Thank you all, xylophone especially. I'm afraid I am showing my age in not remembering or even thinking of checking whether or not I had posted before on this subject. It came back to mind when Martin Lewis referred to it and I, not remembering, got the bit between my teeth and wrote to HMRC. Heres hoping my memory does not get worse but many things are taking longer to comprehend these days! Thanks...
  • xylophone
    xylophone Posts: 46,089
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    It is not surprising that you would want to check matters relating to the state or indeed other pensions - over the years there have been so many changes in legislation and judging by posts on the forum, many discrepancies discovered.
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