Who will receive a letter
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HMRC are contacting about 311,000 people after an earlier mailing reached 340,000 in 2023/2024. Missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) has left some people receiving less state pension than they were entitled to. Correcting their records could increase their pension and result in a payment for past shortfalls.
Of the latest letters, 215,000 are intended for people who have already reached state pension age, according to HMRC figures reported by the Bradford Telegraph and Argus. Others may find that a correction increases the pension they can receive when they retire.
For the first time, the letters contain the CF411 claim form. Recipients can fill it out and mail it back rather than download and print it themselves. HMRC says an online eligibility check remains the quickest option, the Bradford Telegraph and Argus reported.
Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC's chief customer officer, said: "We're hopeful that by including the claim form in the letter, people are more likely to fill it in, send it back and find out quickly and easily whether their entitlement will increase on retirement or, if they've reached state pension age, they're owed a payout."
Concerns about missed letters and scams
Mark Pemberthy, benefits consulting lead at Gallagher, warned that some recipients might dismiss the correspondence as a financial scam. People who have moved without updating their address could also miss it. He said the letters need to be recognizable as genuine and explain clearly why someone is being contacted and whether they need to act.
Similar concerns emerged in research conducted by Verian and published by the DWP in May 2025. According to the Bradford Telegraph and Argus, the study examined why some people had not responded to the earlier HRP campaign. Reasons included suspected scams, unfamiliar terminology and uncertainty about eligibility. Some people worried that a claim could leave them worse off, while others lacked confidence in completing the process online.
What the missing protection means
HRP protected the National Insurance (NI) records of people who were not working because they were caring for someone, such as a child. The scheme operated from April 6, 1978, through April 5, 2010, when National Insurance credits replaced it.
The BBC explained in its August 24, 2026, report that, before 2010, a full basic state pension required 39 qualifying NI years for women and 44 for men. Each year of HRP lowered the applicable requirement by one year, with a maximum reduction of 22 years.
Since May 2000, claims have required a National Insurance number. People who claimed after that point are therefore unlikely to be affected by the missing-record problem.
Pemberthy described those affected as people who took time away from work between 1976 and 2010 to care for children or someone with a long-term medical condition. He said the size of any correction depends on how many HRP years are absent and what that omission did to the person's pension entitlement. Even a modest weekly increase can add up over retirement.
He also said underpayments can be difficult to recognize, especially among people receiving a pension before April 2016, whose payments varied with their personal earnings history. In his comparison, the new state pension for people retiring after April 2016 is the same for everyone, making a shortfall from the maximum easier to spot.
Repayments so far and money still unclaimed
More than 25,000 people have had HRP restored to their NI records since the problem came to light, and claimants have received over £100 million in pension back payments. Earlier government figures put the average repayment above £8,000.
A more specific snapshot comes from DWP and HMRC figures published on May 22, 2025, and cited by ClearScore. By March 2025, the correction exercise had identified more than 12,000 underpayments and paid about £104 million in arrears, averaging £8,377 per case.
That remained far below the amount initially expected. According to the BBC's August 24, 2026, report, the DWP estimated when it launched the correction scheme in 2023 that around £1.2 billion was owed and expected roughly 90% of eligible people to claim. By March 2025, only 8% had come forward. The £104 million repaid left more than £1.1 billion unclaimed.
One case reported by the BBC illustrates how much an individual correction can change a pension. A BBC Morning Live viewer who claimed Child Benefit while caring for her child at home for 13 years in the 1980s was underpaid for 16 years. After her record was corrected in September 2025, she received more than £35,500 in a lump sum, and her weekly pension increased from £120 to £180.
The DWP's "Fraud and error in the benefit system" statistics, updated on May 19, 2026, put the state pension underpayment rate for the financial year ending 2026 at an unchanged 0.3%, or £390 million. Within underpayments caused by NI contribution discrepancies, historic HRP recording errors accounted for £6 of every £10.
How to check a pension record
Pemberthy encouraged people to check their records even if they feel confident about their finances, because state pension entitlement can be complex. He said the planned pension dashboard should make checking easier, but it is not yet widely available, and advised anyone potentially affected to use the government's pension checker.
The usual contribution requirements are 30 years for the full basic state pension and 35 years for the full new state pension.
Applications to add missing HRP to an NI record can be made through the UK government website. People who have not yet claimed their state pension can also use the government's state pension forecast tool to see how much they are on track to receive.
