{"id":103820,"date":"2025-05-15T15:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T15:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/103820\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T15:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T15:17:08","slug":"dwp-underpaid-state-pensioners-by-staggering-450m-personal-finance-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/103820\/","title":{"rendered":"DWP underpaid state pensioners by staggering \u00a3450m | Personal Finance | Finance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The benefits office underpaid state pensioners<\/a> by a staggering \u00a3450million in the last tax year, new figures show.<\/p>\n

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP<\/a>) said the largest reason for underpayments stemmed from errors in National Insurance<\/a> records, particularly missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) credits. HRP, in place from 1978 to 2010, was meant to protect pensions for people with caring responsibilities, but many eligible years were never recorded. Other underpayments involved missing top-up pension components and failures to adjust payments after changes in marital status. These errors meant some didn\u2019t receive inherited entitlements or automatic uplifts based on a spouse\u2019s NI contributions.<\/p>\n

The DWP<\/a> also recorded significant sums of overpayments. According to its latest data, \u00a3190million worth of state pension<\/a> overpayments were made.<\/p>\n

It attributed \u00a380million of this to errors made by claimants, and \u00a3110million to \u201cofficial\u201d errors.<\/p>\n

Jon Greer, head of retirement policy at Quilter, said: \u201cThe latest figures shine a light on the sheer scale and complexity of the state pension<\/a> system. While the overpayment rate for state pensions remains incredibly low at just 0.1%, that still equates to a staggering \u00a3190million of taxpayers\u2019 money being paid incorrectly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis serves as a reminder of the difficulty of administering a benefit that supports over 12 million people and costs \u00a3142billion a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted: \u201cWhat\u2019s more concerning is the sharp rise in official error. Overpayments due to administrative mistakes by the DWP<\/a> tripled in value from \u00a320million last year to \u00a3110 million, a statistically significant increase driven by miscalculations on the additional components of the state pension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese elements, which sit on top of the basic state pension<\/a>, are prone to error and highlight how even small administrative slips can snowball when dealing with such large sums.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the pension expert pointed out: \u201cUnderpayments remain a bigger issue than overpayments, with \u00a3450million of state pension<\/a> payments not reaching the people entitled to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat includes many women who were impacted by historical issues with Home Responsibilities Protection, a now-defunct mechanism designed to protect the pensions of those with caring responsibilities. These legacy issues continue to plague the system despite a correction programme being in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, overpayments of the DWP<\/a>\u2019s Pension Credit benefit hit a record high of 10.3%, costing the taxpayer \u00a3610 million this year.<\/p>\n

Fraud accounted for nearly half of that, climbing to its highest level on record at \u00a3270million.<\/p>\n

Mr Greer said: \u201cGiven that Pension Credit is targeted at some of the most financially vulnerable pensioners, the system needs to strike a careful balance between accessibility and fraud prevention, and it appears to be struggling on both fronts. A large share of overpayments stemmed from people failing to declare financial assets or staying overseas for longer than the rules permit, highlighting the difficulty of monitoring eligibility for a means-tested benefit with complex rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

While lower in proportion, pension credit underpayments still amounted to \u00a370million, and nearly \u00a37 in every \u00a310 underpaid was due to administrative failings.<\/p>\n

Mr Greer said: \u201cThese errors mostly relate to additional amounts for severe disability, which are often the lifeline for those on the lowest incomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThese figures underscore the importance of proactive communication from the DWP<\/a> and HMRC<\/a>, particularly for people with complex entitlements. Given how vital these benefits are in old age, there\u2019s little room for error.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The benefits office underpaid state pensioners by a staggering \u00a3450million in the last tax year, new figures show.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,1267,27701,47937,27702,47936,26440,349,13946,2064,47934,24705,47935,1786,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-103820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dwp","10":"tag-dwp-latest","11":"tag-dwp-national-insurance","12":"tag-dwp-news","13":"tag-dwp-state-pension-underpayment","14":"tag-dwp-underpayments","15":"tag-fraud","16":"tag-home-responsibilities-protection","17":"tag-national-insurance","18":"tag-national-insurance-errors","19":"tag-pension-credit","20":"tag-pension-credit-fraud","21":"tag-state-pension","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114512517151260679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}