I have checked my National Insurance record and have found gaps when I received Universal Credit but not the NI credits for these periods.

Between 2016 and 2021 I was either claiming Universal Credit or employed on a zero hours contract.

I telephoned the National Insurance helpline at HMRC who told me I needed to get this sorted and proceeded to tell me the amount of weeks I was short for each year.

The adviser also told me he didn't know whether Universal Credit should pay NI credits or not as they are not trained in UC.

I phoned Universal Credit at the Department for Work and Pensions who then proceeded to tell me that UC do not pay National Insurance credits.

I am unsure as to my next steps. I am 40 years old.

Steve Webb replies: It is worrying that you are suffering from a known problem which the Government recently told MPs had been fully resolved.

In terms of what you were told on the phone, it is pretty shocking that there is not even a basic understanding of the rules, especially among DWP staff.

The gov.uk website is absolutely clear where it says: 'If you receive Universal Credit, you get Class 3 credits automatically.'

The crucial word in this sentence is ‘automatically’.

As This is Money exposed back in 2023, data from the Universal Credit system and the National Insurance computer system has not always been properly connected up - State pension cover-up: DWP finally comes clean over Universal Credit mess that could affect SIX MILLION people, admitting system broke in 2017 and records are still not fixed.

The DWP claimed repeatedly that there was no need to worry about this because it would all be picked up before people retired.

But probing from Steve Darling MP, Lib Dem spokesperson on work and pensions, forced the government to admit earlier this year that they had to pay out nearly £7.4milliion in state pension arrears to 20,600 people who had made it into retirement without their NI record being fixed.

According to this same written answer, the problem has now been fixed. MPs were told:

'The exercise was completed by 31st May 2024 ensuring all National Insurance records were corrected within the expected timetable with the data shared with HMRC. As stated when the issue was originally raised, relatively few cases, with benefits already in payment, were affected.'

However, your experiences suggest that there may still be problems.

In your case, you have been doing a mixture of paid work and being on Universal Credit since 2016/17, yet your NI record shows the five years from 2016/17 to 2020/21 inclusive as ‘not full’.

One year – 2019/20 – you were on Universal Credit for the whole year but your online NI record is a complete gap and you are being quoted the full price for the year to fill that gap.

What is particularly frustrating, and something we hear all the time, is that no-one seems to be willing to take responsibility, with DWP saying that it’s a matter for HMRC (who keep NI records) and HMRC saying it’s a matter for DWP (who keep benefit records).

I raised your case with DWP, who told me that they have now fixed your record, though without explaining what went wrong.

A DWP spokesperson said: 'We have updated [your reader’s] National Insurance records and apologise for any inconvenience he has experienced.'

You have since been back in touch to confirm that all five years have now been fixed plus 2023/24 which was also previously incorrectly showing as a partial year.

If you had simply given up and ended up with six gap years on your NI record, this could have had a big impact on your state pension.

If you ended up six years short of a full pension this could have cost you nearly £2,000 per year in retirement, or over £39,000 over a twenty-year retirement.

Alternatively, you could have found yourself forking out thousands of pounds for voluntary NI contributions to cover the so-called ‘gaps’ in your record when this would have been unnecessary if your records had been correct.

Whilst I am pleased that your record is now correct, it would be a worry if your experiences are not unique and there are ongoing problems, although DWP has given no indication that it thinks there is a wider problem.

We would therefore be keen to hear from any other This is Money readers who may be in the same position - see below for how to get in touch.

Are you missing out on NI credits for time on Universal Credit?

We would like to hear from readers who think that there is an error on their National Insurance record for time spent on Universal Credit.

You can check your year-by-year NI record here.

We are keen to hear from you in cases where there is a clear cut error, such as a complete financial year where you were on Universal Credit, alongside an NI record for that year showing a complete blank.

If this is you, please send us:

- A printout / screen grab of your NI record for the year in question AND

- A printout showing monthly UC payments for the same year.

You can email [email protected] and use the subject line ‘UC errors’

If there are still problems with this system we will go back to the DWP and HMRC to get them to investigate and make sure this issue is fixed once and for all.

We would also be interested to hear from you if you paid voluntary NI contributions for a year when you were receiving Universal Credit or if you are now drawing a pension and your NI record remains incorrect for periods on UC.