The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is in the middle of a mass state pension correction exercise after it was revealed thousands of women have been underpaid.
Almost 120,000 women have been short-changed their state pension, including married women and widows, and those aged 80 and older, regardless of their marital status. Some mothers may also be affected if they took time off work to look after their children and claimed an older system of Child Benefit.
The DWP has been undertaking a correction exercise since 2021 to fix these errors. A total of £250.6million has been paid out to 45,907 married women, with an average payout of £5,591, while 33,437 women over 80 have received £68.2million, with an average payout of £2,202.
The DWP is still in the process of making payments to widows who have been underpaid their state pension. So far, £417.2million has been paid to 39,706 widows, with an average payout of £11,905. The DWP expects to issue payments to all remaining widows by the end of 2024. If you’ve been affected by this error, you’ll be contacted by the DWP.
Some widows did not see their state pension increase when their husband died, based on his contributions. You may also be able to inherit up to 100% of his additional state pension, also known as SERPS. If you are due money back, this will be backdated to when your husband died.
It may also be possible that you were underpaid while your husband was still alive and you received less than 60% of his basic state pension entitlement. Your claim should now be automatic if your husband died after March 17, 2008, and it can backdated to your husband’s 65th birthday, or when you hit state pension age.
However, this isn’t the only type of state pension underpayment affecting retirees. HMRC is in the process of contacting thousands of mums who took time out of work to look after children and claimed Child Benefit between 1978 and 2000.
These people may be missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) on their National Insurance record – as a result, it could mean they’ve been underpaid the state pension and could be owed money. HPR reduced the number of qualifying years you need to claim the state pension for parents and carers.
It was replaced by National Insurance credits in 2010. Child Benefit claim forms submitted before 2000 did not include a National Insurance number and this means the relevant HRP may not have been carried across correctly in some cases.
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