Women are still being incorrectly told they are not entitled to a state pension despite a huge action to correct past mistakes, according to a former pensions minister.
Sir Steve Webb has written to current Pensions Minister Guy Opperman, who is also MP for Hexham, giving examples of recent errors and calling for further action to improve accuracy.
The correction exercise, which was put in place after a freedom of information (FOI) request from Sir Steve revealed that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) discovered in 2019 that errors were being made. They often relate to women who previously paid a reduced rate of National Insurance contributions (NICs), commonly known as the “married woman’s stamp”.
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These women may find that, under the rules of the new state pension, they lack the 10 years of full-rate contributions necessary to qualify for any state pension. But the new system has a special concession for them, provided they were paying the reduced stamp 35 years before they retired. They could automatically get a pension of £85 per week if they are married or £141.85 if they are widowed or divorced.
But former minister Sir Steve, who is now a partner at LCP (Lane Clark & Peacock) has continued to hear from women who have wrongly been told they have no pension entitlement – including one who retired as recently as April 2022.
He has written to the DWP, detailing some cases, and is calling for action to be taken to prevent mistakes from happening again. Sir Steve said: “When DWP admitted to me that they had been making errors for this group of women, I assumed that they would have put in place procedures to sort out the problem, yet I continue to hear from women who have been wrongly told that they are not entitled to a pension.
“What concerns me most is how many other women there may be who simply trusted what DWP have told them and are now struggling to get by without the pension which is rightfully theirs. DWP should be checking all their records for such cases and putting things right, as well as making sure that these mistakes cannot happen again.”
In one case, Estelle Henley, of Southampton, Hampshire, reached state pension age in April 2022, but was shocked to receive a letter stating that she did not have enough years’ worth of contributions for a UK state pension, even though she had worked full-time in her daughter’s pub for 15 years prior to her retirement.
From previous correspondence with the DWP in 2015, Mrs Henley was aware of the rules for people who paid the “reduced stamp”, so she challenged the DWP directly and contacted Sir Steve. Mrs Henley received an apology and arrears were paid back to the start of her claim. She said: “I knew that something was wrong when I was told I wasn’t entitled to a pension, but there may be other women who might not realise they have been given the wrong information. I would encourage anyone who has been turned down for a pension to make sure that an error has not been made.”
As well as Mrs Henley, Sir Steve also highlighted three other cases:
- A woman who was told in January 2022 that she would receive a state pension of just under £69, based on her National Insurance record. However, she also knew about the “reduced stamp” and, after several letters and Sir Steve becoming involved, an error was accepted and she is now being paid £141 per week.
- A second woman reached state pension age in August 2021 but did not receive her pension. She was initially told she had no entitlement as she only had nine qualifying years. It was later accepted that she was due £86 per week.
- A third woman reached pension age in September 2020 and was also told she had no entitlement to a state pension. Sir Steve said she battled for a year and it was eventually accepted that she should have had £85 per week, which was also backdated for a year.
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