ARE YOU OWED PAYMENTS FROM STATE PENSION?

THOUSANDS of pensioners have been underpaid their state pension, so could some of this lost money be yours?

In an interim report from The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) out this week, it estimates that it has underpaid 237,000 pensioners a total of £1.46 billion. However, the process to correct these underpayments is taking far longer than expected.

In fact, they are taking so long that former pensions minister Steve Webb says he expects it to take another four years just to get through the backlog.

There are three main groups where the DWP have made the mistakes: married women, who should have received an upgrade to a 60 per cent basic state pension when their husband retired; widows (and widowers) who should have inherited an enhanced state pension when their spouse died; and the over-80s, already in receipt of a state pension when they turned that age, who should have been automatically upgraded to a 60 per cent basic state pension.

To find out if you are owed money, Pensions Consultants LCP has a useful online tool.(lcp.uk.com/is-your-statepension-being-underpaid).

Steve Webb, now a partner at LCP, says: ‘If our tool makes it clear you are being underpaid, you should get straight on the phone to ask the DWP to reassess your pension. If it’s clear you are being underpaid, you shouldn’t have to wait years for it to get round to fixing it!’