More than 40,000 families are in line to get an average of £8,900 by claiming the underpaid State Pensions of dead family members.
Around 237,000 people have been underpaid the State Pension by almost £1.5billion due to a mistake at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The final figure could be even higher.
Have you been affected by the State Pension underpayments? Let us know: mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
The DWP has been going back and repaying any underpayments it can find.
But sadly many of these pensioners have passed away without ever getting this extra money.
Now the DWP has launched a website that lets next of kin work out if their family members were not paid enough State Pension.
This then lets the DWP know that the money is owed.
The average amount due to be paid out is £8,900 per person - but some could get more than £40,000.
However, the DWP has warned that only six out of 10 underpaid pensioners will be traceable through the service.
A DWP spokesperson said: "We are writing to people we know may be affected to let them know how this will be put right. But some people will not get a letter from us.
“This is because we do not hold all the information about every affected person.”
How do I make a claim?
You will need to provide the following information about the person who has died:
- their full name
- their date of birth
- their date of death
- their last known address, including their postcode
- the full name of their husband, wife or civil partner, if they were married or in a civil partnership
DWP said if you can also provide their National Insurance number this will help them to deal with the application more quickly.
Why have State Pensioners been underpaid?
The issue affects many people getting the 'old' State Pension, which is paid to people who reached State Pension age before April 6, 2016.
Many of these people on low pensions were allowed to claim a 60% their State Pension if their spouse or civil partner had paid higher National Insurance contributions.
Due to the social norms of previous decades, men almost always earned more than women - and this is often still the case.
What this means in practice is that 80% of the people claiming this perk were women relying on their husband's higher contributions.
But a mistake at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) meant many were not given the top-up, dating back to 1985.
The DWP has been going back and correcting its mistake, but figures from the National Audit Office (NAO) last week found the problem is bigger than expected .
The DWP previously thought it had underpaid 134,000 pensioners more than £1billion.
But the latest figure is 237,000 people underpaid almost £1.5billion - and the real figure could be even higher.
The DWP previously thought fixing the problem would cost between £620million and £2.8billion.
The DWP is prioritising individuals who fall into "at risk" categories, such as those who are widowed or aged over 80.
