NI credits from Income Support & Family Credit in the 1990s

Hi there, I received income support (1992-1996) and family credit (1997-2000) and understand this should mean I received National Insurance credits during this period. My online record shows no contributions during this time, and my state pension prediction is a lot lower than expected as a result. As I do not have any documents from this time, I submitted a Subject Access Request to HMRC and a Right of Access request to DWP for a search based on my NI number which has been active since 1991. Neither request has come back with anything for this period: - DWP referred me to HMRC - HMRC replied only with "Employment history" for this period, not with details of any relevant benefits. How do I proceed to try and find evidence for this period ? I would like to link the benefits I received to my account / NI number so they appear on my record. Thanks

Hi,
With regard to Income Support – this would have been awarded by DWP and they would have been responsible for noting any associated credits on your NI record. I am afraid HMRC have no involvement in this process. If you can obtain confirmation from DWP of the credits that you were entitled to and should have been awarded for your period on income support, please forward a copy of this to HMRC and we can review our records to ascertain if they are missing. However, without this information from DWP, HMRC can’t help with this I am afraid.
With regard to ‘Family Credit’ – assuming you are referring to child benefit? Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) ran from 6 April 1978 to 5 April 2010.  It was a scheme set up to protect customer's rights to state pension and bereavement benefits in certain circumstances, including  if they were awarded Child Benefit for a child under the age of 16.  Customers were not entitled to HRP if they were a married woman and paid the reduced rate of National Insurance. If you reached State Pension Age  before 6 April 2010, HRP worked by reducing the number of qualifying years they needed for the full basic State Pension up to a maximum of 22 years. NI credits were not actually applied to the NI record. If you reached State Pension Age after 6 April 2010 and have been awarded HRP, then there should be NI credits on your record (unless you were a married woman and paid the reduced rate of National Insurance.)
I suggest you contact us on 0300 200 3500 and we will be able to check if HRP is correctly recorded. If you are unable to call, you can complete form CF411 and we will check for you
Thank you.

Thank you for the repky. Understood re Income Support, I will take this up with DWP again, even though they told me you would be able to help and did not provide any details. Family Credit is not child benefit - it is different: Is there anything that can be done here ? I understand that child benefit is separate - my wife received this and the associated NICs for the period in which we were eligible due to our children's age. Thank you

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