{"id":103979,"date":"2025-05-15T16:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/103979\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T16:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:41:09","slug":"state-pension-disaster-as-dwp-underpayments-hit-500m-due-to-issues-plaguing-the-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/103979\/","title":{"rendered":"State pension disaster as DWP underpayments hit \u00a3500m due to ‘issues plaguing the system’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly \u00a3500million in state pension payments have been underpaid<\/a> to thousands of claimants, according to figures from the Department for Work and pensions (DWP).<\/p>\n

Analysts are sounding the alarm that some \u00a3450million in retirement benefit payments “not reaching the people entitled to them” due to system errors.<\/p>\n

This includes many women impacted by historical issues with Home Responsibilities Protection<\/a>, a now-defunct mechanism designed to protect the pensions of those with caring responsibilities.<\/p>\n

Jon Greer, the head of retirement policy at Quilter<\/a>, noted: “These legacy issues continue to plague the system despite a correction programme being in place.”<\/p>\n

\"Pensioner<\/p>\n

Nearly half a billion pounds in state pension payments have been underpaid, according to DWP figures <\/p>\n

GETTY <\/p>\n

Despite being smaller in proportion, underpayments of Pension Credit, still came to \u00a370million. This is the DWP benefit reserved for older households on low income.<\/p>\n

According to Quilter’s analysis, around \u00a37 in every \u00a310 underpaid was due to administrative failings rather than claimant error.<\/p>\n

Outside of underpayments, DWP figures revealed that \u00a3190million in state pension payments were made incorrectly last year, despite an extremely low error rate.<\/p>\n

The overpayment rate for the benefit, which currently supports over 12 million people across the UK, stands at just 0.1 per cent.<\/p>\n

Do you have a money story you\u2019d like to share? Get in touch by emailing money@gbnews.uk.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

State pension overpayments due to administrative mistakes by the DWP have tripled in value from \u00a320million last year to \u00a3110million.<\/p>\n

Pension Credit overpayments to benefit claimants have hit a record high of 10.3 per cent, costing taxpayers \u00a3610million over the past year.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the state pension costs taxpayers approximately \u00a3142billion annually, making even small percentage errors significant in absolute terms.<\/p>\n

This figure is expected to balloon thanks to the triple lock, which determines the annual rate hike for the state pension every year.<\/p>\n

Currently, payment rates increase by either rate of consumer price index (CPI) inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent; whichever is highest.<\/p>\n

This statistically significant increase in payment errors was driven by miscalculations on the additional components of the state pension, according to Greer.<\/p>\n

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Pensioner<\/p>\n

Older Britons have been saddled with cost of living-hiked bills <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

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

According to Greer, given Pension Credit targets some of the most financially vulnerable pensioners, the system faces challenges on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n

“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,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Given how vital these benefits are in old age, there’s little room for error.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly \u00a3500million in state pension payments have been underpaid to thousands of claimants, according to figures from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,1267,474,1232,24705,617,2499,512,1786,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-103979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dwp","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-money","12":"tag-pension-credit","13":"tag-pensions","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-sgg","16":"tag-state-pension","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114512847441198754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103979","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=103979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}