Married Women’s State Pension Errors - Are You Owed?

If you're a woman and you reached your State Pension Age before April 2016, your pension may well have been underpaid by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

If that is the case, you may be entitled to a repayment together with an increase in your ongoing regular pension. The total amount of underpayment could run into thousands of pounds.

The consumer website, MoneySavingExpert, suggests the number of women who may be affected by this could be more than 230,000.

Even if you aren’t affected, someone you know, such as an elderly relative, may well be.

So, discover if you – or they - may have been underpaid, how you can check, and how to go about claiming what you’re owed.

A series of errors and oversights means thousands of women are affected

The underpayments in question relate to a series of DWP errors and oversights.

These were only brought to light through some diligent research by Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP), a leading pensions consultancy.

The errors relate to a failure by the DWP to increase the State Pension being paid to some women under certain circumstances. These include the death of their husband and their husband reaching State Pension Age.

Once the errors came to light early in 2020, the DWP began an official process of repaying those women affected. This started at the beginning of 2021 and is still going on.

By the end of October 2022, the government website confirmed that 31,817 underpayments had already been discovered or reported. This resulted in repayments totalling £209.3 million.

It also confirmed that more than 25% of the cases reviewed had resulted in a pay out.

That’s by no means the end of the story. Indeed, The Times has reported that the total amount of money to be repaid is estimated to be £1.46 billion.

There are several groups who could be owed money

To have suffered from an underpayment, you must have reached State Pension Age prior to April 2016. After that date, the new basic State Pension was introduced, and there have been no underpayments to anyone in receipt of that.

Research by LCP and other interested groups has found various cohorts of people who could have been underpaid.

These include:

• Widows whose State Pension did not change after their husband died
• Widows whose State Pension may have been underpaid while their husband was still alive
• Divorced women, whose State Pension should take account of the contributions of their ex-husband, subject to the woman not remarrying
• Those aged 80 or over, who are eligible to claim a State Pension of £85, regardless of their National Insurance contributions (NICs) record
• The heirs of women whose State Pension was underpaid during their lifetime.

Clearly, if you – or someone you know – is in any of those groups, it’s important to check if you’re due to receive money from the DWP.

The DWP does claim that it wrote to those affected by the underpayments, but many say they did not receive any correspondence.

While some groups will automatically be contacted, others may not be. For example, those whose husbands reached age 65 prior to March 2008 will need to take active steps to find out if they are owed money.

The same applies if you were divorced after your retirement. In this instance the onus is on you to contact the Pension Service.

Helpfully, LCP have produced a handy calculator so you can see if you might be affected.

You should contact the Pension Service if you think you’re owed money

Like many other benefits, the State Pension payment system can be difficult to understand, although it’s fair to say that the changes made in 2016 have gone some way to simplifying the process.

So, if you believe that you, or someone you know, may be entitled to a repayment, you should contact the Pension Service, who will then review your State Pension payments.

With potentially large sums of money at stake, the cost of a phone call or the time it takes you to send an email could be worthwhile. You can contact the Pension Service online or call on 0800 731 0469.

You’ll need to supply names and dates of birth for both you and your husband. You’ll also need to provide your respective National Insurance numbers, so ensure you have these to hand.

With this information, the Pension Service will then be able to tell you if you’ve received less State Pension than you’re entitled to.

If you want to request information about someone who has died and whose pension you believe may have been underpaid, the DWP website outlines the process. You’re also able to start the claim process online through the same link.

Get in touch

If you need help or advice regarding your State Pension and the issues you’ve read about here – especially if you believe you may have been underpaid – please get in touch.

Email info@aspirafp.co.uk or call us on 01454 632 495.

Please note

The information contained in this article is based on the opinion of Aspira and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to any investment or retirement strategy.

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