Thousands of pensioners may be in line for a payout due to past errors in payments, according to a former Government minister.
The mistakes have come to light after Freedom of Information requests from former pensions minister Steve Webb. And Mr Webb, who served as Minister for State for Pensions in David Cameron's coalition government, has slammed the length of time it has taken the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to uncover the underpayments.
The main errors affect two groups of pensioners, who now may be due to extra payments to make up the shortfall:
- Couples where one partner has died
- Married women getting the new state pension
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Many pensioners hit by the mistakes should have been identified already and received top-up payments, but Mr Webb told The Mirror they should check, especially older married women, as mistakes are still ongoing.
In couples where one partner has died, the mistakes affect people who reached state pension age before April 6, 2016, and inherited a pension from their deceased partner who reached state pension age after them. Some of these inherited pensions grew by less than they should have due to DWP errors.
Mr Webb said another group of people with smaller state pensions than they should have are women who paid what was known as the 'married woman's stamp'. These stamps are reduced National Insurance contributions offered as an option to all women who worked before 1977, and millions took them up. At the time, many women relied heavily on their husbands' pensions and not their own, but changes to pension rules in April 2016 meant women now get state pension payments based on their own National Insurance record, not their husband's.
Women paying the married woman's stamp faced lower state pensions, but they may be eligible for top-up payments from the DWP. The latest finding is that many women are still not being paid the right amount, despite the problem coming to light in 2019 .
Steve Webb, who is now a partner in financial firm Lane, Clark and Peacock (LCP), said: "Whilst anyone can make a mistake, what is worrying about this catalogue of errors is how long it can take for anyone to spot that anything is wrong. In one case it was three years after the new state pension was implemented before anyone spotted a systematic problem with the payments to certain married women.
"It is also surprising that information about these errors and correction exercises has not previously been made public. DWP need to improve on two fronts – better error checking to make sure people are not paid the wrong pension in the first place, and greater transparency so that the public is told when things have gone wrong."
A DWP spokesperson said: “This year we will spend over £100billion on the state pension and our priority is ensuring every pensioner receives all the financial support to which they are entitled. These correction exercises highlight how, where errors do occur, they are identified and rectified.”
