DWP and HMRC giving people up to £5,000 as letters sent

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are sending out letters to people eligible for back payments of up to £5,000.

30,000 letters have been sent out to people telling them they are eligible for a cash handout. As our sister site, Mirror Online, reports the issue was highlighted last year by former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb, who explained it mainly affects stay-at-home mums who made a claim for Child Benefit between 1978 and 2000.

National Insurance credits help you build up your qualifying National Insurance years when you're out of work These were previously known as Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP), which reduced the number of qualifying years you need to claim the state pension, and was available between 1978 and 2010 for parents and carers

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Your state pension entitlement is based on your National Insurance record - but in some cases where the person was claiming Child Benefit, the National Insurance credits they should have received were not transferred across properly. Katie Farrington, Director-General for Disability, Health and Pensions at the DWP said the first set of letters have now been dispatched.

Ms Farrington said: “Those are for the older group, of State Pension age, and then those will phase through with further groups. My understanding is the intention is to issue all of the letters across the next 18 months.

"The role of HMRC is to correct the National Insurance record and then we will then take any action that is then needed with the State Pension.” The underpayment relates to women who reached state pension age before