Women underpaid in DWP state pension 'scandal'

By March 2024, the DWP had only assessed 419 cases out of an estimated 194,000 (Image: Getty) Sign up to our free email newsletter to receive the latest breaking news and daily roundups More Newsletters Subscribe Please enter a valid email Something went wrong, please try again later. More Newsletters We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you.

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More info × Group 28 Thank you for subscribing! We have more newsletters Show Me No thanks, close See our Privacy Notice The Government faces growing fury over a “truly shocking” state pension blunder as official figures reveal underpayments are hurtling towards the £1 billion mark — with the vast majority of victims being women and mothers. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been forced to admit that a sprawling correction effort, launched to rectify errors dating back decades, is still nowhere near completion — and is barely scratching the surface. New data shows the DWP’s combined correction exercises — including a long-running review started in 2021 and a more recent effort in 2024 to address Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) errors — have identified more than £900 million in missing payments.

But experts warn this is only the tip of the iceberg. Steve Webb, former Pensions Minister and now partner at consultancy LCP, said: “Given we are due an update on the HRP correction exercise (where the figures only run to September 2024), I’m expecting the total amount underpaid – mainly to women – to crash through the £1bn mark this year.” Estimates suggest the final bill could exceed £1.

15 billion. The Government faces growing fury over a “truly shocking” state pension blunder (Image: Getty) Mr Webb, who has been at the forefront of exposing these blunders, described the pace and scale of the repayments as “truly shocking”. In an interview with FT Adviser , he said: "One of the notable features of these errors is that they didn’t only affect poor people.

Widows (and widowers) who did not get an uplift when their spouse died were not necessarily poor, but still lost out, while missing national insurance credits can potentially affect any parent’s NI record if they got child benefit.” He said the current correction exercise had revealed a deep failure in the system, particularly in tracking HRP and National Insurance credits for parents who raised children at home. Mr Webb warned families — including those who receive financial advice and those who don’t — that they may be missing out on huge sums.

“The best thing that people who had children before 2000 can do is check their NI record to see if they’ve got full credits for those years,” he said. Parents who stayed at home with young children between 1978 and 2010 may have unknowingly built up significant pension shortfalls due to administrative errors — in many cases, because NI numbers were not included on Child Benefit forms. The situation has been further compounded by the revelation that HMRC destroyed historic Child Benefit records, meaning the DWP is now forced to go on what Mr Webb described as a “fishing expedition”, writing to potentially affected women and asking them to come forward.

By March 2024, the DWP had only assessed 419 cases out of an estimated 194,000, but says it has now "completed the vast majority". Arrears paid totalled just £2.2 million.

Rachel Vahey, head of public policy at AJ Bell, called it: “One of the biggest benefit scandals of modern times. Once all compensation has been paid, the government needs to undertake a comprehensive review of its processes to ensure these mistakes are never repeated. "Trust in pensions is fragile at the best of times and failures such as this will not help.

Sadly, it will probably take years, if not decades, to rebuild the confidence lost as a result of this scandal.” In some of the most tragic cases, victims of the blunder have died, meaning the money owed will now be passed to their estate, if claimed at all. Mr Webb said: “The errors have been going on so long that a substantial number of those who missed out have now died and any payment would go to their estate.

” Families are being urged to act fast. If they suspect a gap in their NI record, particularly during years spent raising children, they can apply for credits using form CF411a. Campaigners are now calling on the DWP to ramp up its efforts — and for ministers to apologise to the thousands of women who were let down by a system that was meant to support them.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Our priority is ensuring pensioners receive the dignity and security they deserve in retirement and that state pension 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.” Pensioners who think they may be affected can contact the Pension Service for further guidance.

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