Use the simple tool to find out as the DWP pays back £800million to state pensioners who have been underpaid in a huge error.
State pensioners warned over DWP error ‘stretching back as far as 1985’
A simple tool will let you know whether the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has underpaid you the state pension. Use the simple tool to find out as the DWP pays back £800million to state pensioners who have been underpaid in a huge error.
DWP data shows 130,000 people were underpaid on their state pensions due to a series of administrative mistakes, with some errors stretching back as far as 1985. Former Pensions Minister Steve Webb warned: “The vast majority of those who lost out were women, some underpaid for decades or who died never having received what they were owed.”
To assist pensioners in determining whether they have been underpaid, financial consultancy LCP has created a free online tool. The site can also tell you how much state pension you will inherit on top of your own state pension when you reach pension age (or when you are widowed, if this is later).
READ MORE HMRC issues warning to ‘wind down’ use of scheme as it begins ‘crackdown’
What matters for these purposes is whether or not you are/were legally married (or in a civil partnership), so these rules still apply even if you were separated.
Equally, none of these rules apply to couples who live together outside marriage (or civil partnership), no matter how long this has been the case.
LCP said: “The rules for those who are/were married and those who are/were in Civil Partnerships are the same, so for brevity from now on we will simply refer to marriage.”
It adds: “Before going any further, we need to set out some special rules which apply to a small group of women.”
These are women who opted to pay what is often called the ‘married woman’s stamp’ – a lower rate of National Insurance contributions – when they were in work AND were still eligible to pay the ‘married woman’s stamp’ 35 years before they reached state pension age AND were born after 5th April 1953.
It states: “If you satisfy all three tests, click here for the special rules which apply to you. If not, carry on with the rest of the site.”