NIM41350 - Home Responsibilities Protection: what is HRP and who qualifies for it: claiming HRP

Regulations 2 and 2(5)(b) and (c) of the Social Security Pensions (Home Responsibilities) Regulations 1994 (SI 1994/704) (the 1994 regulations)

Automatic Awards of Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP)

HRP was awarded automatically to those awarded Child Benefit or who received Income Support throughout a tax year while they were caring for a person with a disability or long-term illness.

If a person awarded Child Benefit has reason to believe that HRP is missing from their National Insurance account (because for example they did not supply their National Insurance number to the Child Benefit Office) they will need to make a claim to HRP using form CF411.

Who has to make a claim HRP

A person looking to transfer HRP from their partner who received it because they were awarded Child Benefit is required to make a claim. See NIM41331.

Other full-time carers (those who was regularly engaged in caring, for at least 35 hours per week, for a person to whom prescribed benefits were payable for at least 48 weeks of the relevant tax year, see NIM41340) are required to make a claim on form CF411, providing evidence of their entitlement.

Regulation 2(5)(b) and (c) of the 1994 regulations set a time limit for applications from full-time carers:

  • up to 5 April 2002 applications for HRP could be made any time up to State Pension age for tax years from 6 April 1978 to 5 April 2002
  • applications for HRP made for tax years from 6 April 2002 to 5 April 2010 must be made within 3 years immediately following the end of the tax year in which entitlement arose - applications could be made until 5 April 2013 for the tax year 6 April 2009 to 5 April 2010.

Foster parents/carers are also required to make a claim for HRP for tax years between 6 April 2003 and 5 April 2010. To make a claim, they must complete form CF411 and provide a ‘letter of confirmation’ that they had been appropriately registered as a foster parent/carer throughout the relevant tax year. There are no time limits for making a claim in these circumstances. For more information on HRP for foster parents/carers, see NIM41335.

Applications on or after 6 April 2010

Applications made for tax years on or after 6 April 2010 will be subject to the new provisions for Credits for Parents and Carers (see NIM41250 onwards).