Help! My state pension credits are missing: STEVE WEBB urges everyone to 'spring clean' their NI records

I am contacting you in response to your column regarding the This is Money reader who was not credited with National Insurance contributions whilst claiming Universal Credit.

I have exactly the same issues regarding a period when I was claiming Employment Support Allowance.

I contacted HMRC who referred me back to the Department for Work and Pensions. I have written to the DWP three times with no response.

I have hand delivered a letter to the local benefit office where the claim was made, again no response.

I asked to speak to someone in the benefit office and was told an appointment had to be made.

I was given a leaflet with the appropriate telephone number. When I rang it there was no such number.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Steve Webb replies: Your experiences, and those of our reader who was on Universal Credit, make me think that everyone reading this could benefit from a ‘spring clean’ review of their NI record to make sure it is accurate.

Incorrect NI records can damage your future state pension entitlement and cost you thousands of pounds if not fixed.

In particular, National Insurance credits are a way of protecting your NI record when you are unable to work due to ill health, unemployment or caring responsibilities.

In most cases these credits should be awarded automatically with no further action on your part. But too often, as your experience demonstrates, that automatic process does not work.

In your case you were previously receiving a benefit known as Incapacity Benefit, and the government of the day decided to move people onto a new benefit known as Employment Support Allowance.

For as long as you were on Incapacity Benefit, your NI record correctly showed credits, meaning that your state pension rights were still building up.

But when you were switched to ESA this stopped.

This is despite the fact that the letter you received telling you about the move to ESA explicitly said that your NI credits would continue.

This is not the first time I have heard of cases where people’s NI credits were incorrectly stopped when they were moved onto another benefit.

As with our previous reader, you have found great difficulty in getting the Department to respond to your correspondence or find the right person to speak to.

Part of the reason for this is that responsibility is split between two departments – HMRC, which keeps NI records, and DWP, which administers the benefits and is meant to notify HMRC when someone is entitled to NI credits.

I have contacted DWP on your behalf and I am pleased to say that they have now corrected your NI record.

A DWP spokesperson said: 'We are committed to ensuring all our customers get the support they are entitled to. After investigating [your reader’s] case, we have awarded the National Insurance credits he is entitled to from the beginning of his claim.'

Whilst it is good that your own record is has now been corrected, it does again make me wonder how many other people have errors on their record of which they may be totally unaware.

I have therefore asked DWP to investigate what went wrong in your case and whether it could apply to other people as well. We will have to wait and see what they come up with.

In the meantime, I would encourage everyone to undertake a ‘spring clean’ of their NI record, using the online tool at Check your National Insurance record, and look for unexpected gaps.

NI credits are available in a wide range of situations and although some are automatic (like credits for Universal Credit and ESA) some have to be claimed, such as carers credits for those looking after a disabled person for more than 20 hours per week.

More detail on the list of NI credits is here.

If it looks to you as though you should have a ‘qualifying year’ towards your state pension through NI credits, but these are missing, we would be interested in hearing from you - see below for how to get in contact.

One final thing to be aware of is that having a disability does not itself automatically trigger an NI credit.

In particular, receipt of a benefit such Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or Disability Living Allowance (DLA) does not generate a credit.

It is only if you also claim an income-replacement benefit such as UC or ESA that you would get a credit.

Although it is tempting to leave these things, it is much easier to sort things out when they are relatively recent.

This is partly because you are more likely to have relevant paperwork if you act quickly, and also because there are deadlines to claiming some credits.

A bit of time spent now in resolving matters can save a lot of frustration (and money) in later years.

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We would like to hear from readers who think that there is an error on their National Insurance record for time spent on Universal Credit or other benefits.

We are keen to hear from you in cases where there is a clear cut error, such as a complete financial year where you were on UC or ESA, alongside an NI record for that year showing a complete blank.

If this is you, please send us:

- A printout / screen grab of your NI record for the year in question AND

- A printout showing monthly UC or other payments for the same year.

You can email [email protected] and use the subject line ‘NI errors’

If there are still problems with the NI credits system we will go back to the DWP and HMRC to get them to investigate.

We would also be interested to hear from you if you paid voluntary NI contributions for a year when you were receiving Universal Credit or if you are now drawing a pension and your NI record remains incorrect for periods on UC.