Full list of OAPs due State Pension back payments of up to £12k

The Department for Work and Pensions are set to award State Pension back payments worth nearly £12,400 before the end of 2024. The DWP is trying to identify and correct historical administration errors which have left thousands of older people, mostly women, underpaid.

However, it is important to be aware most people currently receiving the State Pension - some 12.6 million - are getting the right amount of money. The latest figures published by the DWP on its progress of case reviews for possible underpayments, show between January 11, 2021 and October 31, 2023, the checking process has identified 82,323 underpayments, owed a total of £497 million.

The data also indicates 595,964 State Pension awards have been reviewed, with average payouts ranging between £2,245 and £12,383. Some married women, people in a civil partnership, widows and those over 80 may have been underpaid because their current State Pension payment does not include additional entitlements.

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DWP confirmed last year it was ‘on track’ to complete the exercise by the end of 2023 for married women (category BL) and those over 80 (category D). The planned end date for the State Pension LEAP ( Legal Entitlements and Administrative Practice) exercise is the end of 2024, , the Daily Record reports.

In 2020, the DWP became aware of a number of individuals who had not had their State Pension increased, in accordance with the law, automatically when this should have occurred. This prompted the Department to take action to investigate the extent of the problem.

Reasons for State Pension underpayments

There are three broad categories of State Pension underpayments:

• cases covered by the State Pension Underpayments (LEAP) exercise
• Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) cases where HRP has not been recorded accurately on National Insurance records
• Cases where National Insurance credits need to be updated for people who were claiming Universal Credit.

State Pension Underpayments LEAP exercise

The State Pension LEAP is the DWP’s largest underpayment correction exercise in progress. It has been established to identify where State Pension underpayments may have occurred in respect of the following groups of people:

• Category BL (Cat BL) - People who are married or in a civil partnership who reached State Pension age before April 6, 2016 and should be entitled to a Category BL uplift based on their partner’s National Insurance contributions.
• Missed conversions - People who have been widowed and their State Pension was not increased to include any amounts they are entitled to inherit from their late husband, wife or civil partner.
• Category D (Cat D) - People who reach age 80 and who are getting some Basic State Pension but less than the £85.00 (in 2022-23) and may therefore, subject to satisfying the appropriate residency conditions, be entitled to Cat D State Pension of £85.00 a week.

State Pension underpayment progress - October 2023

The number of cases reviewed, arrears identified and payments made between January 2021 and October 2023 are listed below.

Married (Cat BL)

• Cases reviewed: 270,024
• Underpayments identified: 37,488
• Average arrears: £5,931
• Total amount repaid: £220.3 million

Widowed (Cat B)

• Cases reviewed: 240,786
• Underpayments identified: 17,894
• Average arrears: £12,383
• Total amount repaid: £219.9 million

Over 80 (Cat D)

• Cases reviewed: 83,154
• Underpayments identified: 26,941
• Average arrears: £2,245
• Total amount repaid: £56.7 million

State Pension underpayments - Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP)

The DWP estimates it underpaid between £300 million and £1.5 billion of State Pension because of errors with the recording of HRP.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) recently announced it will start writing to thousands of older people this Autumn who may have been underpaid their State Pension due to missing information on their National Insurance (NI) record. The issue affects mostly women in their 60s and 70s who may have HRP missing from their NI record.

HRP was a scheme designed to help protect parents’ and carers’ entitlement to the State Pension and was replaced by NI credits from April 6, 2010. HMRC is using NI records to identify as many people as possible who might have been entitled to HRP between 1978 and 2010 and have no HRP on their NI record.

After May 2000, it became mandatory to include a NI number on claims so people claiming after this point will not have been affected. It is estimated tens of thousands of people are due an average of £5,000 in back payments.

Personal representatives are able to claim on behalf of deceased customers. For more information on eligibility and how to claim, visit the dedicated HRP page on GOV.UK here.

State Pension National Insurance Credits

Some people who received Universal Credit may not have had their National Insurance Credits correctly attributed to their National Insurance record held by HMRC which could affect their State Pension.

National Insurance records are maintained by HMRC based on information from employers through PAYE, Self-Assessment tax returns from the self-employed and information provided by DWP on benefit receipt where that creates a National Insurance credit.

Between 2017-18 and 2022-23 information about Universal Credit entitlements could not be processed by the National Insurance Recording System. National Insurance credits can affect the value of a State Pension award, so there was a risk some people who had claimed Universal Credit and subsequently reached State Pension age may have been underpaid.

During this period the DWP put in place a manual system with HMRC to update an individual’s National Insurance record where they felt they qualified for National Insurance credits in respect of time on Universal Credit.

With the issues now resolved between the DWP and HMRC systems, claims data relating to the affected years can now be successfully processed by HMRC. When these records are updated information will be sent to the DWP who will then correct any State Pension awards that are affected.

How to check if you are affected or make a claim

There are now 12.6 million people across Great Britain claiming State Pension, including more than one million in Scotland. Of that overall total, 9.7 million are in receipt of the Basic State Pension and 2.9 million on the New State Pension.

The Basic State Pension is worth up to £156.20 each week and the New State Pension up to £203.85.

A phone call to the pension service is the quickest way to find out if you have been underpaid your State Pension. The best number to call is 0800 731 0469 but full contact details can be found on the Gov.uk website here.

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