Full list of reasons you could be owed backdated state pension payments worth £10,000s

A SERIES of government blunders mean that hundreds of thousands of people have been paid less state pension than they should have.

The mistakes disproportionately impact women, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only group affected.

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You could be owed £10,000s in backdated state pension payments[/caption]

Depending on why your pension was underpaid, you might get the backdated payments automatically, or you might have to apply.

It’s possible that you fall into more than one category, as there is some overlap, so you may need to follow a couple of different processes to get what you’re owed.

If you’re not sure, LCP has a useful calculator that can help you work out if you’re being underpaid or have been in the past.

We’ve rounded up the full reasons you could be missing cash as well as what – if anything – you need to do to get your money back.

People who took time off work because of caring responsibilities between 1978 and 2010

If you took time out of work to look after your children or someone with a disability between 1978 and 2010, you may have missed out on state pension benefits worth £5,000 on average.

The DWP says that a computer error meant that 210,000 people didn’t get all the money they’re entitled to.

Around 150,000 of the affected people – most of whom are women – are still alive, while around 60,000 are deceased.

The people impacted are those who claimed child benefit in those years but did not put their National Insurance number on their claims.

They should have had something called Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) which added credits which counted towards their state pension – in much the same way that National Insurance credits work today.

However, an error meant that many of these women did not have their credits transferred across.

The DWP says that it is writing to hundreds of thousands of people that might be affected.

But if you received child benefit between 1978 and 2010, you should check your NI record.

If there are missing payments, you can fill in a form to get the credits added to your record.

It is called a CF411 form and it can be found on the government’s website.

You might also be able to apply if any of the following were true:

• you were caring for a child with your partner who claimed child benefit instead of you
• you were getting Income Support because you were caring for someone who
  was sick or disabled
• you were caring for a sick or disabled person who was claiming certain benefits

If your partner claimed child benefit, you might be able to transfer the HRP, but they will have to agree.

For instance, if you were a stay-at-home parent and your working partner claimed the child benefit, they can transfer the credits to you.

If you do have missing HRP credits and you’ve already reached state pension age, your payments will be re-calculated and you should get any missing money backdated and paid to you as a lump sum.

Women whose reached state pension age before 2016

If you reached state pension age before April 2026 and your payments are less than 60% of your husband’s basic state pension, you might be entitled to more.

To qualify, your husband needed to turn 65 before March 17, 2008.
Even if your husband turned 65 after this date, it’s worth checking.

The uplift should happen automatically, but you can contact the pensions service if not.

It’s important to note that it’s not the full state pension payment you’re checking, it’s the basic element.

It’s possible that your husband gets more than this overall, so
make sure you’re comparing the right numbers.

Before 2016, married women, who often didn’t work, were entitled to a proportion of their husband’s state pensions.

But errors made by the DWP mean that in many cases this didn’t happen.

If your basic state pension is less than 60% of your husbands, you may be entitled to a backpayment of the difference.

The DWP will only allow you to claim 12 months’ worth of the missing money, but you’ll get the correct amount going forwards.

There is also a small number of women in this group who are receiving no basic state pension at all, though they might be getting some additional pension payments known as SERPS.

The DWP says these cases are rare, but the missing money could be significant, as you should get 60% of your husband’s basic state pension.

Even better, you can backdate the payments to when your husband started drawing his state pension, which could mean a substantial lump sum.

Both groups should contact the Pension Service to ask how to get your amount updated and some – if not all – of the money back.

Women who divorced their partners after state pension age

Under the old state pension system for those who reached pension age before 2016, there were two main ways in which a divorced woman could benefit from her ex- husband’s pensions contributions.

If a women divorced and did not remarry before state retirement age, her state pension could rely on her husband’s contributions up until the point of divorce.

This should have happened automatically.

If a woman divorced after retirement, she could have had her state pension reassessed based on her ex-husband’s contributions right up to her retirement.

This would typically result in getting the full state pension.

But if you got divorced after retirement then you needed to let HMRC know to get the extra money, which many people may not have known they needed to do, meaning years of lower repayments.

This could also impact divorced men who were relying on their wives’ state pension records, although this is far less common.

If you’re not receiving the full state pension, you should contact HMRC to see whether you are due a higher amount.

Unfortunately, these claims can’t be backdated, but could mean a significant uplift on future payments.

Widows whose husbands died after March 17, 2008

If your husband died after March 17, 2008, and you were paid less than 60% of his basic state pension when he was alive, you should be entitled to missing money.

The payments will be dated back to whenever your husband turned 65 or whenever you claimed the state pension, whichever came latest.

You shouldn’t need to do anything, and this should happen automatically, but it’s worth keeping your eyes peeled for letters from the DWP.

This is also true for widows whose state pension payments didn’t increase when their husbands died.

Typically, widows in this scenario should have seen their basic state pension rise up to a maximum of £169.50 a week, and they may also have inherited between 50-100% of the second state pension if the husband had one.

Again, this should happen automatically, but you need to watch out for letters from the DWP.

Anyone over 80

If you’re aged over 80 and you get less than £101.55 a week in state pension, you could be owed money.

That includes if you get no state pension at all.

The over-80s pension entitles you to £101.55 a week in the 2024 to 2025 tax year.

You don’t need to have made national insurance contributions to qualify, but you do need to have been:

• resident in the UK for at least 10 years out of 20 (this does not have to be 10 years in a row) – this 20 year period must include the day before you turned 80 or any day after
• and “ordinarily resident” in the UK, the Isle of Man or Gibraltar on your 80th birthday or the date you made the claim for this pension, if later.

Heirs and widows of impacted people

If you’re the heir or widow of someone who missed out, you should be able to make a claim on their behalf.

You’ll need to work out which error might have applied, and then you can contact the pensions service.

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