Married women to receive £23k after state pension blunder

More than 74,000 married women are to receive a windfall of up to £23,000 after being short-changed by the Government on their state pension.

In total, 200,000 women who were underpaid the state pension for years are due refunds totalling £ 2.9bn. Large numbers of elderly, widowed and divorced women have been forced to get by on a reduced stipend for years due to the oversight.

New figures released by the Office for Budget Responsibility have shown the average arrears payment for the first time. Widowed retirees are owed an average £17,000, this rises to £ 23,000 for married women.

Meanwhile, 72,000 over 80s have been underpaid more than half a billion pounds and are to receive an average payment of more than £10,000 over the next five years.

The Government is due to hand over £570m every year until 2026 to cover for the loss of income.

From the age of 80, those who reached pension age before 2016 are entitled to the state pension regardless of their National Insurance contributions. Retirees receive the “over 80” state pension if they were not eligible before or if they were paid less than £80.45 a week on the basic pension.

Baroness Ros Altmann, a former pensions minister, called for a full investigation and report into what went wrong. She said: “It has taken a long time, since the problem was first discovered, for the issue to be taken seriously and the DWP’s own helplines seem to have falsely assured many of the women who claimed they were being underpaid that they were actually receiving the correct amount.”

It will still be a long time before all those affected are reimbursed and there is a concern that many will pass away without enjoying the extra money, Baroness Altmann added.

In November, the DWP severely underestimated the total amount it would have to pay for the mistake, forecasting £100m. It has since emerged that it will have to compensate pensioners for close to £3bn. It will be a major embarrassment for the DWP, which identified the oversight in 2020.