Martin Lewis warns people who had kids in 32-year period may be owed £5,000

Martin Lewis has issued advice

The 'State Pension error' mainly affects women and 'especially' applies to those in their 60s and 70s, Money Saving Expert's Martin Lewis said.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says it owes somewhere between £300 million and £1.5 billion to pensioners, with the Home Responsibilities Protection scheme being responsible for a lot of this.

"It’s for people who took time off work between 1978 and 2010 to look after their children or to care for someone who is long-term disabled," the financial expert explained.

During his podcast, Lewis said that the Home Responsibilities Protection scheme was supposed to give people 'National Insurance years' that they would have got if they had been working, in order to be eligible for a full State Pension.

"But it’s possible over 100,000 women didn’t," Lewis explained.

"And while the government had been trying to contact those women, it has stopped doing so now, so the onus is on you. To show you how big this could be, Cilla got in touch with me and said, ‘I’ve just received 15 years back pay from HMRC of £31,674 for underpayment of my pension, thank you’."

HMRC sent out letters to those who may have been affected, and while those should have been received last year, it is said many did not take action 'as they assumed it was a scam or was not relevant to them'.

Lewis went on to explain how those who may be entitled to money can take action, recommending that those who could be owed act 'as soon as you can'.

"So what you need to do is you need to go onto gov.uk to see if you’re projected to get the full State Pension," he said.

"If you’re not, you need to see when your gaps in years were, were they between 1978 and 2010, and if so were they the years that you were not working to look after your children or someone who had long-term disabilities.

"If they were, you need to go and do your research on Home Responsibilities Protection, because you could be owed money."

HMRC said: "We want to help you make sure you receive the right amount of State Pension, so we’re asking you to check if you were eligible for HRP between 1978 and 2010," the department said, adding that you could qualify if you received Child Benefit for a child under 16.

"The letter will tell you how you can check if you’re eligible to claim missing Home Responsibilities Protection and how to make a claim," it added.