State pension alert as thousands to get £6,550 back pay by the end of the year

Thousands of pensioners are set to receive back pay worth £6,550 after a series of state pension underpayment errors affecting married women and pensioners over 80.

Previously, the government explained the repayments could run through to “late 2024,” however their timetable has shortened and those affected will receive it by the end of the year.

Two groups of women could be paid by the end of next year – they include married women who should have received an upgraded State Pension and those aged over 80.

Payments made to affected married women were averaging £6,550 and for those over 80, it was around £3,000, figures showed.

Jonathan Ashworth MP previously asked the DWP when it would be repaying the remaining 200,000 pensioners identified as being underpaid their state pension.

The DWP also confirmed that the planned end date for the State Pension LEAP (Legal Entitlements Administrative Practice) exercise remains on schedule to be finished by the end of 2024.

Revised estimates from the DWP indicate that 165,000 State Pensioners have been underpaid £1.2billion due to historical official errors relating to married women, widows and people aged over 80.

In addition, they estimated that 210,000 people have been underpaid a further £1.3billion due to historical issues relating to Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP).

Deleted data on Child Benefit means that some women have been getting less state pension than they are entitled to as their National Insurance record is incomplete.

These people are mostly mothers who are now in their 60s and 70s and should have had National Insurance credits for the time they spent bringing up children.

Where errors are found, their National Insurance records will be corrected and the DWP will then recalculate state pensions and pay arrears where appropriate.

In the latest report, DWP said: “As stated in last year’s Annual Report and Accounts, we are on track to complete the exercise for the customer groups Cat BL and Cat D by the end of 2023.

“We expect to see a continued increase in clearance rates in 2023-24, as additional resources join the exercise and complete their training and additional rounds of automation are completed in Summer 2023.”

The State Pension LEAP exercise has been established to identify where State Pension underpayments may have occurred in respect of the following groups.

Category BL (Cat BL)

· People who are married or in a civil partnership who reached state pension age before April 6, 2016, 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.

Category D (Cat D)

· People who reach age 80 and who are getting some basic state pension but less than £85.00 (in 2022-23) and may therefore, subject to satisfying the appropriate residency conditions, be entitled to Cat D State Pension of £85.00 a week.

If someone feels they may be owed money, they can contact the pension service to find out if they are eligible on 0800 731 0469. However full contact details can be found on the Government website.

Earlier this year, a DWP spokesperson said: “The action we are taking now will correct historical underpayments made by successive governments.

“We are fully committed to addressing these errors, not identified under previous governments, as quickly as possible.

“We have set up a dedicated team and devoted significant resources towards completing this, with further resources being allocated throughout 2023 to ensure pensioners receive the support to which they’re entitled.”