THOUSANDS LOSE OUT IN STATE PENSIONS BLUNDER

Millions to be paid out to women shortchanged

TENS of millions of pounds could be refunded after a blunder short-changed thousands of women on their state pensions.

The Department for Work and Pensions confirmed it was trawling through records to identify those due a windfall. Thousands have already been reimbursed after they did not automatically receive increased payments. The average refund is around £9,000, but some have received more than £30,000. The shortfall in payments is

estimated at £100million and last night experts urged women of pensionable age to make their own checks, rather than wait for a call.

It is believed hundreds of thousands could be eligible for reimbursements.

Former Pensions Minister Sir Steve Webb said: “I have no doubt that in addition to the millions of pounds already refunded, this process will result in tens of millions of pounds being paid out.”

Currently, he said, many groups, including widows, divorced women and over-80s, will not get a call from the DWP and must ring up and ask for their state pension to be checked.

He added: “It would be far more efficient for the DWP to do a comprehensive record check, including alerting women who still need to make a claim for an uplift.

“Without this, this issue will rumble on and on, and women will continue to miss out on the pension that is rightfully theirs.” The shortfall has been caused by factors including complex rules about the entitlement of women under the old pension system and computer errors by the DWP.

Under the old system married women could claim a basic state pension at 60 per cent of the full rate based on their husband’s contributions where this would be larger than the pension they could get based on their own contributions.

Since March 17, 2008, this uplift to 60 per cent should have happened automatically.

Before that, a married woman had to make a second claim to have her state pension increased when her husband turned 65. More than 160,000 people have accessed a calculator provided by pensions consultants Lane Clark & Peacock after it published a report in May exposing the scandal.

Ros Altmann, former Pensions Minister, said: “The Government seems to have no idea how many people this affects. Women’s pensions are already significantly lower than men’s. The Government needs to urgently identify these under-payments and ensure the women receive the money they were entitled to.”

The DWP said: “We are aware of a number of cases where individuals have been underpaid state pension.We corrected our records and reimbursed those affected as soon as errors were identified. We are checking for further cases.”