MSE NEWS: 'I reclaimed £25,000 after taking time off to provide care' – can you do the same?

MSE_Isabelle

Two MoneySavers have boosted their State Pensions by thousands of pounds after hearing MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) founder Martin Lewis's warnings about people potentially missing out. If you took time off work between 1978 and 2010 to look after children, or to provide care, you too could be due £10,000s – though check now, as we've heard reports of long delays in processing claims.

Read the full story here:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2026/03/reclaim-home-responsibilities-protection-delays/

retired19

I agree everyone should check that their national insurance records are correct preferably before they claim their state pension but definitely if they are not getting the full amount. I heard about the glitch regarding home responsibility protection and checked my records before I reached pension age.I was shocked that I had been affected but it was quickly rectified once I asked. I got the full state pension straight away as the records were corrected. Please check, your records are only as good as the data that was input and mistakes can happen.

yorkshell_2

I know someone who received back pay on a pension, but then had to repay all the pension credit they had received.

Imindoors

Thanks to the forum alerting us, my wife's claim was approved and she received just under £20,000 and a meaningful boost to her pension.

However, I do think that the policy of not adding interest to the outstanding payments is very unfair and I'm surprised Martin hasn't highlighted this. Even on a simple calculation of each year's pension shortfall at a low uncompounded interest rate, this amounts to several thousand pounds over a 20 year period.