Big state pension update for 120,000 women underpaid up to £11,905 by DWP

A big state pension update has been issued for 120,000 women underpaid by up to £11,905 by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Fresh figures show that almost 120,000 women have been short-changed on their state pensions and are owed up to £11,905 each.

The DWP has been undertaking a correction exercise since 2021 to fix these errors. So far, £417.2million has been paid to 39,706 widows, with an average of £11,905 each and it means that in total, 119,050 women are owed up to £11,905 each from the DWP.

The DWP added that it expects to issue payments owed to all remaining widows by the end of 2024. Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The number of people who have been underpaid their state pension is shocking.

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"And this isn't the final number either, because the DWP hasn’t finished uncovering the full extent of underpayments yet. The government is still carrying out a review, going through everyone who might have been underpaid, so you don't need to apply to be part of this process."

There are three broad categories of State Pension underpayments: cases covered by the State Pension Underpayments (LEAP) exercise, Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) cases where HRP has not been recorded accurately on National Insurance records and cases where National Insurance credits need to be updated for people who were claiming Universal Credit.

The State Pension LEAP exercise has been established to identify where State Pension underpayments may have occurred for people who are married or in a civil partnership who reached State Pension age before April 6, 2016 and should be entitled to a Category BL uplift based on their partner’s National Insurance contributions, or 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.

People who reach age 80 and who are getting some Basic State Pension but less than the £85.00 (in 2022-23) and may therefore, subject to satisfying the appropriate residency conditions, be entitled to Cat D State Pension of £101.55 a week (2024/25 weekly rate) are also affected.