Extract from the article that is linked below:
"The Treasury announced today that it plans to address the fact parents who have not claimed child benefit could miss out on building their state pension.
Victoria Atkins, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said: 'Those affected will in future be able to claim National Insurance credit retrospectively as ministers move to tackle this issue."
I had to fill in boxes concerning this when I applied for state pension last autumn as they had already told me I would be gaining rights for years they paid UK child benefit as that is taken into account automatically now.
One small step for UK Government, one giant leap for UK mums 
Yes - that has been the situation for some time now.
My understanding of the latest change is that mothers who did not claim child benefit can now claim to have pension credits applied retrospectively.
Hate to say it but I bet most of those mothers are now dead, hence the government taking so long to sort it out have saved on paying those people.