{"id":48882,"date":"2025-04-25T08:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T08:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/48882\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T08:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T08:20:09","slug":"state-pension-update-as-800m-blunder-is-discovered-check-if-youre-hit-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/48882\/","title":{"rendered":"State pension update as \u00a3800m blunder is discovered – check if you’re hit | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of pensioners<\/a> across the UK may have been short-changed by the government in a state pension<\/a> blunder worth more than \u00a3800 million. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)<\/a> has been carrying out a major correction exercise since January 2021 after identifying historic underpayments affecting mainly women.<\/p>\n

According to the latest official figures published by the DWP<\/a>, a total of 130,948 underpayments were discovered by March 31, 2025 – with arrears totalling \u00a3804.7 million. The issue has affected married women whose pensions<\/a> were not correctly increased when their husbands retired, widows who were not reassessed after their spouse died, and over-80s whose pensions<\/a> were never uplifted as required.<\/p>\n

According to PensionAge<\/a>, \u00a3252.8 million has been paid to 47,004 married women, \u00a3483.4 million to 50,261 widowed cases, and \u00a368.5 million to 33,683 pensioners over 80 – with average payouts ranging from \u00a32,200 to over \u00a311,700.<\/p>\n

In a separate review, another \u00a342 million has been uncovered in underpayments linked to missing records of Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP), which affects parents – mainly mothers – who claimed child benefit before 2000.<\/p>\n

As reported by the Northern Echo<\/a>, this figure is expected to rise as the correction exercise continues through 2025.<\/p>\n

Sir Steve Webb, a former pensions minister who has long highlighted pension errors, said the situation was \u201ctruly shocking,\u201d adding: \u201cThe vast majority of those who lost were women, some of whom were underpaid for decades or even went to their grave never paid the right state pension<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also told PensionAge it was now \u201chighly likely\u201d the final bill would exceed \u00a31 billion once all errors – including HRP corrections – are addressed.<\/p>\n

Rachel Vahey, the Head of Public Policy at AJ Bell<\/a>, said: \u201cThis is one of the biggest benefit scandals of modern times.<\/p>\n

\u201cDWP<\/a> miscalculations have left thousands of pensioners – mainly women – short on their state pension<\/a> payments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is absolutely critical all those affected by this scandal receive the money they are owed as quickly and efficiently as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

A DWP<\/a> spokesperson said: \u201cOur priority is ensuring pensioners receive the dignity and security they deserve in retirement and that state pension<\/a> underpayment rates remain as low as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have now completed the vast majority of cases in the exercise as planned with a small number of outstanding cases due to further documentation needed from the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pensioners who think they may be affected can contact the Pension Service for further guidance. More information is also available on the government website at gov.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of pensioners across the UK may have been short-changed by the government in a state pension blunder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,2781,1267,13946,1786,26523,16,26524,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-48882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-department-for-work-and-pensions","10":"tag-dwp","11":"tag-home-responsibilities-protection","12":"tag-state-pension","13":"tag-state-pension-blunder","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-underpayments-affecting-women","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114397631213148837","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48882","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=48882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}