{"id":59237,"date":"2025-04-29T04:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T04:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/59237\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T04:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T04:16:11","slug":"dwp-thousands-due-up-to-12k-pension-back-payments-full-list-of-those-eligible-personal-finance-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/59237\/","title":{"rendered":"DWP: Thousands due up to \u00a312k pension back payments &#8211; full list of those eligible | Personal Finance | Finance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pensioners in the UK have been underpaid to the tune of more than \u00a3800 million &#8211; with some owed almost \u00a312,000, the Department for Work and Pensions (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/dwp\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DWP<\/a>) has revealed. The government department <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/state-pension-underpayments-progress-on-cases-reviewed-to-31-march-2025\/state-pension-underpayments-progress-on-cases-reviewed-to-31-march-2025\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has published an update on its work<\/a> checking for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/state-pension\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state pension<\/a> underpayments, which began in January 2021.<\/p>\n<p>It has now revealed that, between January 11, 2021, and March 31, 2025, 130,948 underpayments were made &#8211; with a total of \u00a3804.7 million owed. In some cases, people may have received an overpayment of another benefit such as pension credit, the department said.<\/p>\n<p>It also said there may be some cases where the person has died and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/dwp\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DWP<\/a> has been unable to identify an estate to which to pay arrears.<\/p>\n<p>Those affected by errors include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>married women on low state pensions whose payments were not automatically increased when their partner retired;<\/li>\n<li>people whose pension was not automatically reassessed on the death of their spouse;<\/li>\n<li>over-80s whose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/state-pension\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state pension<\/a> entitlements were not automatically increased.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cases may be checked for more than one potential cause of error, so a claim may be counted in more than one category, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/dwp\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DWP<\/a> said.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/dwp\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DWP<\/a> has said the average underpayments made are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Widowed: \u00a311,725;<\/li>\n<li>Married women (category BL): \u00a35,553;<\/li>\n<li>Over 80s (category D): \u00a32,203.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/state-pension\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state pension<\/a> correction exercise is looking into missing historic periods of Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP), leading to inaccurate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/state-pension\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state pension<\/a> payments. Between January 8 and September 30, 2024, the exercise identified 5,344 underpayments, with total arrears of around \u00a342 million.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Steve Webb, a former Liberal Democrat pensions minister who has been unearthing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/state-pension\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state pension<\/a> errors, said the amounts paid out under the current HRP exercise are expected to rise sharply as it gathers momentum. A previous HRP correction exercise over a decade ago led to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/state-pension\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state pension<\/a> arrears payments of \u00a383 million.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Steve, who is now a partner at consultants LCP (Lane Clark &amp; Peacock), said: \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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/state-pension\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state pension<\/a>. The remaining corrections need to be handled as a matter of urgency. This should never be allowed to happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rachel Vahey, head of public policy at AJ Bell, said: \u201cThis is one of the biggest benefit scandals of modern times. <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/dwp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DWP<\/a> miscalculations have left thousands of pensioners \u2013 mainly women \u2013 short on their <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/state-pension\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state pension<\/a> payments. It is absolutely critical all those affected by this scandal receive the money they are owed as quickly and efficiently as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/dwp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DWP<\/a> spokesperson said: \u201cOur priority is ensuring pensioners receive the dignity and security they deserve in retirement and that <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/state-pension\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state pension<\/a> underpayment rates remain as low as possible. We 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pensioners in the UK have been underpaid to the tune of more than \u00a3800 million &#8211; with some&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,1267,474,2499,1786,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-59237","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-personal-finance","12":"tag-state-pension","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114419320973858931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59237","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=59237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}