Money expert Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert website has urged people to claim back payments of an average of £6,000 that they could be missing out on if they took time off work in certain years.

MSE says that a system put in place to protect the state pension entitlement of people who chose to take time off work has been ‘beset with errors’ and as a result hundreds of thousands of people could be owed cash back payments.

Anyone who took time off between 1978 and 2010, is currently aged between 41 and 90, and claimed Child Benefit or Income Support for the first time before May 2000 could be eligible for the cash.

MSE said: “Since the 1978/79 financial year, the Government has had a system in place to protect the state pension entitlement of those who aren’t earning through paid work – mainly mothers – because they’ve instead chosen to take time off work to look after their children or to care with someone with a long term medical condition.

“However this protection wasn’t implemented properly for 100,000s of people. This means many women who took time off work to raise children or be a carer have had their state pension underpaid.”

The original system was called Home Responsibilities Protection and was automatically awarded to those claiming Child Benefit.

But MSE adds: “But the system has been beset with errors, with 100,000s who cared for children having gaps in their NI records that shouldn’t be there. In this case, the automatic ‘home responsibilities protection’ entitlement is missing, and those affected are already being underpaid state pension – or could be in future.”

If you check and discover any HRP or National Insurance credit is missing, and have you have already reached state pension age, the DWP will be notified and your state pension should be reassessed with any back-payments paid to you, with the average state pension back payment currently sitting at £6,000.