![\"British](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2c7e8j9-british-money-currency-re-979580385_40e40e.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n1<\/p>\n
A simple tool can help you find out if you’ve been underpaid state pensionCredit: Alamy<\/p>\n
The DWP has has acknowledged the staggering scale of the error and has already reimbursed over \u00a3800million.<\/p>\n
A review<\/a> by the department revealed that more than 130,000 people were underpaid on their state pensions<\/a> due to a series of administrative blunders, with some errors stretching back as far as 1985.<\/p>\n While the average amount owed per person was just over \u00a36,000, some individuals received life-changing sums.<\/p>\n One widow, after years of pursuing the department, was awarded \u00a323,000.<\/p>\n To date, \u00a3804.7million has already been reimbursed, and the total bill is expected to exceed \u00a31billion as additional cases come to light.<\/p>\n Former Pensions<\/a> Minister Steve Webb warned that the situation was so severe it risked becoming normalised.<\/p>\n He said: “The vast majority of those who lost out were women, some underpaid for decades or who died never having received what they were owed.”<\/p>\n The hardest-hit groups include married women whose pensions were not automatically increased when their husbands retired.<\/p>\n Widows and widowers were also affected, as their payments were not adjusted following the death of their spouse, while over-80s missed out on pension uplifts when they reached their milestone birthday.<\/p>\n To assist pensioners in determining whether they have been underpaid, financial consultancy LCP has created a free online tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n Martin Lewis issues warning about DWP letters<\/p>\n This tool enables individuals to quickly check if they are missing out on payments they are entitled to.<\/p>\n The calculator, which has already been used over a million times, takes just a few minutes to complete.<\/p>\n It requires users to provide basic information, such as their marital status and current pension income.<\/p>\n The DWP has reviewed the majority of pension records, but some cases remain unresolved due to missing documentation or individuals not yet coming forward.<\/p>\n The department has stated that the full resolution of these errors will not be completed until March 2027.<\/p>\n In the meantime, pensioners are strongly encouraged to check their status and reach out to the Pension Service if they suspect they have been underpaid.<\/p>\n Calculate your state pension payments<\/p>\n To qualify for the new state pension<\/a>, you need to have paid enough National\u00a0Insurance<\/a>\u00a0(NI) contributions or credits.<\/p>\n You need at least ten years on your record to get any payments at all. To get the full amount, you usually need 35 years\u2019 worth of contributions.<\/p>\n If you have gaps on your record, you can choose to buy\u00a0the missing\u00a0years to boost your state pension payments.<\/p>\n To find out whether you\u2019re on track to get the full state pension, you can\u00a0check your forecast on the government website.<\/a><\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to sign in through the government gateway. <\/p>\n If you\u2019ve already got an account, use those details, otherwise you might need to set one up.<\/p>\n Those just reaching the retirement age now can only qualify for the new state pension, which follows the rules outlined above<\/p>\n But if you are either a man who was born before 6 April 1951 or a woman who was born before 6 April 1953, you\u2019ll get something called the basic state pension, and you might also get additional state pension.<\/p>\n You can read more about the\u00a0basic state pension on the government’s website.<\/a><\/p>\n