The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has identified over 119,000 state pensioners who have been underpaid. Back payments average £11,905 per case. This discovery has led to a correction exercise to ensure the rightful payment of pensions.
Over the past three years, the DWP has worked to rectify the situation. It particularly affects married women, civil partners, and pensioners over 80 years old. The initiative has become the DWP’s largest underpayment correction exercise to date.
It is projected to resolve all pending cases by the end of the year. The underpayments generally fall into three broad categories:
1. Cases covered by the Underpayments (LEAP) exercise: This includes individuals who did not receive automatic increases to their pensions as required by law since 2020.
2. Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) cases: These involve instances where HRP was not accurately recorded on National Insurance records, leading to underpayments. 3.
National Insurance credits updates: These are for individuals who were claiming Universal Credit and whose National Insurance credits need updating.
Underpaid pensions correction exercise overview
According to the data, 45,907 underpayments were identified among married individuals and civil partners (Category BL) from 321,142 cases reviewed.
This resulted in an average arrears payment of £5,591. The widowed category revealed 39,706 underpayments from 445,188 reviewed cases, with the highest average payment of £11,905. In the over-80 category (Category D), 33,437 underpayments were discovered from 90,720 cases, with average arrears of £2,202.
A similar exercise by HMRC identified 5,344 underpayments through the HRP corrections exercise. An average of £7,859 is owed per individual. The errors in recording HRP are estimated to have led to underpayments ranging from £300 million to £1.5 billion.
The DWP has sent over 370,000 letters to potentially affected individuals. These are primarily women in their 60s and 70s. National Insurance records are used to identify those who might have been entitled to HRP between 1978 and 2010.
For pensioners wondering if they are affected, the quickest way to check is to contact the Pension Service at 0800 731 0469. Lines are open from 8 am to 6 pm, Monday to Friday. This ongoing effort by the DWP aims to ensure that all affected pensioners receive the payments they are entitled to.
It seeks to correct years of underpayments and provide financial relief to thousands of individuals.
