Pensioners could be entitled to thousands of pounds in back payments due to mistakes made by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Women who hit the State Pension Age before April 2016 could be eligible for the payments, with widows, divorcees and those who rely on their partner's pension contributions for some of their pension entitlement most likely to be owed. All women over 80 are also encouraged to check whether they could be entitled to the back payments regardless of their marital status, with millions of pounds still waiting to be claimed.
The claims equate to an average of over £6,000 per case according to forecasts, but this amount could be higher or lower depending on each person's individual circumstances. One woman won a £60,000 lump sum after originally being told she didn't have enough National Insurance contributions years to qualify, Coventry Live reports.
READ MORE: Martin Lewis warns millions of households earning under £40,000 could be losing out on benefits
More than 230,000 pensioners are thought to have been underpaid the State Pension, in DWP errors amounting to £1.46 billion in total. Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO said: "The impact of the underpayment of State Pension on those pensioners affected is significant.
"It is vital that the Department for Work and Pensions corrects past underpayments and implements changes to prevent similar problems in future." Anyone who thinks they may be eligible can contact the Pension Service for further advice on 0800 731 7898, or by textphone 0800 731 7339.
Pensioners can also use the LCP tool to check whether they could be owed money, a private service backed by former Pensions Minister Sir Steve Webb. The Government said that if you are owed back payments you will be contacted by DWP to receive the money in due course, and the department added in November that it was speeding up the process this year by continuing to allocate more workers to address the issue.
A DWP spokesman 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."
Figures released by DWP in November showed that 31,817 cases of underpayment had been identified between January 11, 2021 and October 31, 2022, with the eligible pensioners owed a staggering total of £209.3 million. Around 13,000 of these cases related to married pensioners, with the average pay-out amounting to £6,929.
Meanwhile, just under 8,000 of the 13,000 cases applied to widowed pensioners, who were owed an average of £10,772 each. And over 10,000 people over 80 were found to be owed an average of £3,172 each after also being underpaid the State Pension.
Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert website has urged women who reached the State Pension age before April 2016 who fall into one of the eligible groups to "pick up the phone and make a claim", warning that certain groups will not automatically receive their top-ups from the Government. This includes:
- Women who got divorced after reaching State Pension age who have not had their pension reassessed
- Any woman whose husband turned 65 before 17 March 2008, and who are being paid less than 60% of their husband's basic state pension
- Married women who are on basic State Pension but may be getting a small amount of additional state pension, also known as SERPS, or graduated retirement benefit
You can request information on behalf of someone who has died through DWP's online tool. Additionally, you can write in to the Pension Service at the following address: Post Handling Site A, Wolverhampton, WV98 1AF.
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