State pension underpayments have been identified by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), with a correction exercise now taking place. The Department plans to identify over 200,000 people who are being paid the wrong rate of state pension due to a historic error.
While the vast majority of state pension payments were provided without issue, some married women did not receive the right amount.
However, former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb has unearthed an obscure document which could shed further light on the number of those who have been impacted.
Supplied by the DWP to an appeal tribunal last year, the document states there are older married women in the “low hundreds of thousands” who are not receiving the full state pension they could be getting, but whom the Department has no plans to contact.
An extract from the document states: “As I have already explained, this figure would only have been the starting point for determining who could be eligible for a Category BL pension.
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“It would still be necessary to go through the very resource-intensive manual process I have outlined above to identify the group of people who would actually have been eligible to claim for an uplift to their Category BL pension.”
The specific group impacted are those who are currently getting less than the standard 60 percent married woman’s rate of basic state pension, but whose husband is now aged 80 or over.
For these women, a higher state pension may be available, but only if they claim it.
However, because many of these women are unaware of their entitlement, they continue to receive a reduced state pension.
After March 17, 2008, women in this position should have received an automatic uplift to the 60 percent rate, and if this did not happen, the DWP will try to find and identify them to ensure they are repaid.
But Sir Steve warned ‘pre March 2008’ women have been excluded from the correction exercise, because the onus is perceived to be on these women to claim the uplift.
The DWP submission to the tribunal is thought to be the first official estimate of the number of women who could potentially benefit from an uplift.
These individuals have potentially been missing out on a higher state pension for at least 15 years.
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However, if they were to apply now, they would get an increase – but it would only be backdated for 12 months.
Sir Steve is therefore urging older married women to check if they could be entitled to an uplift.
The expert is currently helping several women who only found out about the uplift many years after the event to make a complaint for ‘maladministration’.
Complaints have been considered by the DWP’s Independent Case Examiner, and the first has now been submitted to the Parliamentary Ombudsman.
Sir Steve said: “It is shocking that the Government knows that hundreds of thousands of older married women could be on a higher pension but has done nothing to make them aware in the fifteen years or more since their husband retired.
“I would encourage any married woman with a husband over 80 and who has a basic pension under £85 per week to check if she may be entitled to a higher pension.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “Our priority is ensuring pensioners receive the financial support to which they are entitled and the action we are taking now will correct historical underpayments made by successive governments.
“As upheld by a court last year, married women whose husbands reached state pension age after them, but before March 17 2008, are required by law to make a claim for an uplift to their state pension.”
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