HMRC - Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) advice
Discussion
My MIL is widowed, is 77 and has dementia. She has just received a letter from HMRC regarding HRP and the fact they don’t have this on her national insurance record. She’s being asked to check her eligibility.
My wife and I are trying to help her but having looked at the eligibility checks there are some questions that my MIL/we cannot answer with 100% certainty.
For example. It asks her if she paid the reduced rate of national insurance contributions in any of the years.
- She doesn’t know/ can’t remember.
We hoped HMRC would know this but it seems not. We can see she has a number of years (10) with no national insurance contributions but don’t know if this means much.
We have a lasting PoA to help her on items like this but that is last resort as it’s not that easy to register them all and we do wonder if we are wasting our time as her state pension looks more than expected, meaning perhaps whilst she might not be getting HRP perhaps she is getting other items (widowed pension??) and can’t get any more.
Does anyone know if HMRC can help if we try to call them or can she answer as best as she can reasonably recall and then submit and will HMRC then actually check perhaps against records that aren’t visible on line?
Thanks in advance
My wife and I are trying to help her but having looked at the eligibility checks there are some questions that my MIL/we cannot answer with 100% certainty.
For example. It asks her if she paid the reduced rate of national insurance contributions in any of the years.
- She doesn’t know/ can’t remember.
We hoped HMRC would know this but it seems not. We can see she has a number of years (10) with no national insurance contributions but don’t know if this means much.
We have a lasting PoA to help her on items like this but that is last resort as it’s not that easy to register them all and we do wonder if we are wasting our time as her state pension looks more than expected, meaning perhaps whilst she might not be getting HRP perhaps she is getting other items (widowed pension??) and can’t get any more.
Does anyone know if HMRC can help if we try to call them or can she answer as best as she can reasonably recall and then submit and will HMRC then actually check perhaps against records that aren’t visible on line?
Thanks in advance
HI
The fact that HMRC have contacted means that this is unlikely to be a waste of your time. If there are any questions you cannot answer then just say 'unknown'.
However, to help things along, work out which of your MIL's children were below 16 years old between 1978 and 2010 (at least to year 2000 if you can) and send HMRC their details AND their National Insurance numbers. This will help them identify who child benefit was paid for and when.
Dont worry about the amount of pension already being paid because this may be the result of being widowed. Any arrears owed will likely preclude that and then possibly add more on.
there is a lot of publicity around about this but try websites by Steve Webb & Martin Lewis for information and also government ones.
Here are a couple of sites to search to get you started.
hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-02-08/debates/24020830000011/HomeResponsibilitiesProtectionCorrectiveExercise
moneysavingexpert.com/news/2023/10/hmrc-letter-pension-underpayments/
And just to add to this if you get your claim accepted it currently seems to be taking the DWP about 10 months to update pensions after HMRC have passed it on to them.
Good luck
SR
The fact that HMRC have contacted means that this is unlikely to be a waste of your time. If there are any questions you cannot answer then just say 'unknown'.
However, to help things along, work out which of your MIL's children were below 16 years old between 1978 and 2010 (at least to year 2000 if you can) and send HMRC their details AND their National Insurance numbers. This will help them identify who child benefit was paid for and when.
Dont worry about the amount of pension already being paid because this may be the result of being widowed. Any arrears owed will likely preclude that and then possibly add more on.
there is a lot of publicity around about this but try websites by Steve Webb & Martin Lewis for information and also government ones.
Here are a couple of sites to search to get you started.
hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-02-08/debates/24020830000011/HomeResponsibilitiesProtectionCorrectiveExercise
moneysavingexpert.com/news/2023/10/hmrc-letter-pension-underpayments/
And just to add to this if you get your claim accepted it currently seems to be taking the DWP about 10 months to update pensions after HMRC have passed it on to them.
Good luck
SR
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