Thousands of state pensioners who are women missing £5,000 after DWP error

Tens of thousands of older state pensioners are missing out on £1,000s due to a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) error. The DWP gaffe and error has seen 187,000 people miss out on retirement money they're entitled to.

Those affected are parents who claimed Child Benefit before 2000 and are missing out on the extra cash due to gaps in their National Insurance (NI) records.These mothers should have had ‘Home Responsibilities Protection’ (HRP) on their NI record since 1978 when they were raising children.

But in many cases, this is missing which means they aren't getting paid all the state pension they should. The DWP estimates that a total of £1.3billion is owed to those affected - and that equates to an average amount of £5,000 owed to each individual.

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Sir Steve Webb told The Sun: "The scale of this problem is such that it is going to take 18 months to try to track down all those who may have missed out." The former Liberal Democrats Pensions Minister added: "But HMRC’s records give them only very limited information about who to contact, so anyone who thinks they were eligible for Home Responsibilities Protection which may be missing from their state pension should check if they were entitled and put in an application."

A Government spokesman said: “We have identified and are correcting an issue related to the historical recording of home responsibilities protection on the National Insurance records for people who first claimed child benefit before May 2000.

“Most people's records will be unaffected, and we have launched a new online tool to help people check whether they need to claim. HMRC has begun writing to those likely to be affected. State pension underpayment rates are very low but where errors do occur, we are committed to fixing them as quickly as possible.

“The letters will be sent nationally and in phases, in order of how close customers are to state pension age. Those over state pension age will be contacted first. We will be taking a test and learn approach and aim to write to several hundred thousand people over the next 18 months.”