UC claimants not being automatically being credited with National Insurance credits without DWP intervention

The request was successful.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

The following was cited from a DWP source on https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/view...

‘Thank you for the information about your national insurance credits. A solution to this problem is currently in development which will ensure that all UC claimants are credited with the appropriate credits, with a contingency if a case is rejected. We don’t currently have a timescale for when this work will be fully completed.
We are currently prioritising claimants who are within 4 months of State Pension Age to ensure that their claims for State Pension are not delayed.’

How many claimants have been affected by this, how long has this been going on and when did the department first become aware of this anomaly?

Yours faithfully,

Andy Pennington

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S. Gwilliam left an annotation ()

This has been going on for years with ESA and JSA - before UC came along.
They seem to have no interest in actually fixing it.

I personally know of many cases including myself.
I claimed ESA in 2011 and had no NI credits awarded until I checked my NI record noticed the omission. (2019 or so).

To give the DWP their due once I queried it they did sort it out fairly quickly with HMRC who added the credits for the whole time.
That was also the experience of the other cases I know of.

DWP Central FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear Andy Pennington,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 17th
December.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Thank you for your response, really helpful!!!! But I am not clear on the following.

'Since then a strategic solution has been implemented to ensure all Universal Credit claimants
are credited with the appropriate credits to support their qualifying years for state pension
purposes'.

Would you mind please clarifying the above that was in the response i.e. what was/is this 'strategic solution'?

Yours faithfully,

Andy Pennington

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S. Gwilliam left an annotation ()

"The issue regarding the updating of an individual’s National Insurance record with class 3
contributions was first identified in 2019."

I can show evidence of this issue being raised by many claimants (including myself) going back to 2017.
Here is just one forum thread from 2017, there are others on that forum and on other fora.
DWP replies to claimants, as reported in this linked thread, show that DWP staff were well aware of the problem in 2017, even if management were ignoring it.
https://youreable.livingmadeeasy.org.uk/...

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'UC claimants not being automatically being credited with National Insurance credits without DWP intervention'.
Please could I have a response as soon as possible to the following I should have received by 19/01/2022.

'Thank you for your response, really helpful!!!! But I am not clear on the following'.

'Since then a strategic solution has been implemented to ensure all Universal Credit claimants
are credited with the appropriate credits to support their qualifying years for state pension
purposes'.

'Would you mind please clarifying the above that was in the response i.e. what was/is this 'strategic solution'?

Best wishes

Andy

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/u...

Yours faithfully,

Andy Pennington

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DWP Central FOI Team,

2 Attachments

Dear Andy Pennington,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 20th
January.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team