Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb has warned that thousands of older women may be missing out on State Pension back payments due to new errors in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) calculations. The alert follows the success of a previous online tool that helped married women identify underpayments, which attracted over a million users.
Sir Steve, now a partner at LCP, highlighted that widowed individuals claiming the New State Pension could be losing up to £2,000 a year because the DWP failed to automatically include inherited State Pension from a late partner. He said: 'We have found worrying evidence that new claims are not being handled correctly. These cases may well be the tip of an iceberg.'
The issue particularly affects widows or widowers whose deceased spouse reached pension age before April 6, 2016, or died before that date. The amount of inherited State Pension varies depending on factors such as whether the late spouse was employed or self-employed, and whether the widow receives a company pension.
As of March 31, 2024, the DWP has paid £1.12 billion in arrears through its Legal Entitlements and Administrative Practices (LEAP) exercise and £2.2 million through Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) corrections. Between January 2021 and March 2024, 99,558 people over State Pension age—mostly women—received back payments averaging between £2,196 and £12,423.
The DWP has completed reviews for married women, civil partners, widows, and those over 80 by the end of 2023, with corrections and backdated payments expected by the end of this year. The total arrears due through the LEAP exercise are estimated at £970 million, affecting 133,000 pensioners, while around 194,000 people have been impacted by missing HRP.
