Thousands of people are missing an average of £7,293 each after a DWP mistake on state pensions.
The Department for Work and Pensions this week released its Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24,, which looks at every aspect of what the DWP has spent money on in the most recent financial year, including underpayments of benefits owed to those who should have received them, and fraudulent benefits payouts it has identified.
One area the DWP is looking at is state pension ‘underpayments’, where people didn’t get money they should have received.
The organisation is currently undertaking what it calls a state pension underpayment ‘LEAP’ exercise, in which it works to identify underpayments owed to several groups.
Three key groups are owed money, including: People who are married or in a civil partnership who reached state pension age before April 6 2016 and should be entitled to a Category BL uplift based on their partner’s National Insurance contributions.
Missed conversions – people who have been widowed and their State Pension was not increased to include any amounts they are entitled to inherit from their late husband, wife or civil partner.
And finally, people who reach age 80 and who are getting some state pension but ‘less than £101.55 and may therefore be entitled to a Cat D state pension of £101.55 a week.”
That means people born in years before 1944 could be owed money under the third category, and people who hit pension age before April 2016, so born before 1959 or 1960 depending on your age, could qualify under the first category.
The report said: “Between 11 January 2021 and the end of March 2024, the checking process has identified 99,558 underpayments, with a total of £594 million owed.
“Current estimates of the total arrears due is £970 million to 133,000 pensioners and recognised a provision of £369 million, reflecting the outstanding amounts it still expects to repay.
“Last year it was estimated that DWP underpaid £1.17 billion to 170,000 pensioners. The final total value of the underpayments will only be confirmed by the completion of the exercise.”
The numbers mean that 133,000 pensioners are still owed an average of £7,293 each, based on payments worth £970M to 133,000 pensioners, but the total number could climb higher as the process is still ongoing.
