Are YOU entitled to a state pension payment? DWP keeps 78-year-old man waiting for almost a year

A 78-year-old man was stuck in a state penitentiary queue for nearly a year and repeatedly deceived by government staff.

Christine Plant, pictured right, received confirmation by letter of a 16-year hole in her records, but continued to go around in circles at HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions.

That includes a three-hour phone call that she describes as “horrible.”

This treatment of a pensioner has raised concerns about the delay in correcting long-standing state pension errors.

HMRC is responsible for amending National Insurance records, but cases are then passed to the DWP, which recalculates incorrect payments and adjudicates arrears.

A steady stream of readers contact us to receive letters about underpayments and then be left hanging for months.

The DWP has refused to tell us how many staff are working to resolve these cases.

But former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann says DWP staff are currently being diverted to deal with the huge number of pension credit claims from people who have missed winter fuel payments.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of letters have been arriving from DWP and HMRC to people receiving an insufficient state pension or to their loved ones where they have already died.

Many elderly married women and widows, and both men and women over 80, were underpaid totaling almost £1 billion in a state pension scandal uncovered by our columnist Steve Webb and This is Money.

In another billion-pound mistake we highlighted, many mothers lost large sums of money in state pensions due to holes in their National Insurance records.

After reading one of our stories, Ms Plant realized her payments were too low due to this latest issue and contacted HMRC as we advised at the time.

But while HMRC responded quickly to confirm a 16-year deficit, it fell to the DWP to resolve his state pension.

She was owed a rise from £28 to £171 a week, and her arrears had risen to more than £17,700 when This is Money intervened to resolve her case.

Mrs Plant had written to us in despair, saying: ‘I have made no further progress than last year at this time. I’m told it takes a long time but I could end up being one of the deceased who didn’t receive it.’

Steve Darling MP, Liberal Democrat spokesman for work and pensions, says: “These underpayments affecting parents and family carers are simply heartbreaking – they should never have happened in the first place.”

“Furthermore, payments to those affected have been unacceptably slow, even though these issues came to light as early as 2022.

“It is imperative that the DWP acts urgently so that refunds can be made without further delay.”

> Are you or a late relative owed state pension arrears? If you received a letter but haven’t heard anything else, find out how to contact us below

‘I wish they had apologized for making you wait for a year. Or 18 years

Christine Plant, 78, a retired administrative manager who lives in France with her husband, says she realized the years she spent raising her children might not be on her NI record after reading about it on this site web.

She contacted HMRC in November 2023 and that same month they confirmed that “protection from household responsibilities” needed to be added to her register.

However, thereafter he struggled to find out what impact this would have, if any, on his state pension.

Mrs Plant called three times and was given empty promises that another letter would be sent within a month and that an email about her case would be marked urgent, but she heard nothing more.

She says one “horrible” call lasted three hours as she was passed around departments, but still went nowhere.

He adds: ‘I called HMRC again. I said it’s been a year. I said if I owed you money you wouldn’t wait that long.

His case was finally resolved less than a business day after This is Money flagged it to HMRC and DWP, and almost 11 months after he first asked HMRC if he was owed HRP.

HMRC contacted us to say that it had fulfilled its duties by processing Ms Plant’s application and recording the missing HRP on her NI record, and that the DWP was responsible for reviewing a client’s pension.

The DWP told us: ‘We have apologized for the delay in processing Ms Plant’s award. When errors occur, we are committed to resolving them as quickly as possible.”

However, Ms Plant says she received no apology and, meanwhile, the DWP staff member who called her after This is Money raised her case blamed HMRC.

‘She said they had had my information there for some time ready to go, but they had been waiting for HMRC to give the go-ahead.

“He made it sound like he had been there by her side for a long time.”

When Mrs Plant first heard the news during this phone call that she would be paid £17,700 in arrears, she says: “I think she expected me to be elated.” I was shocked.’

She told us: ‘Honestly, I don’t think I would have achieved anything without you. To say that he is waiting here ready to go is an insult to my intelligence. I’ve been calling them on the phone.

‘Why didn’t he appear at the age of 60? I wish they would have said they’re sorry they made you wait a year. Or 18 years old. They are giving it to me as if it were a favor. I wouldn’t have done it without your help, I’m 100 percent sure. There must be many like me.

‘They should have apologized. That would have made a difference, if someone had apologized for not fixing it instead of blaming someone else. The blame game. It’s always someone else’s fault.

She tells of her experience trying to figure this out alone: ​​’I was going to give up. If I have any advice it’s to persevere, but I don’t think I would have gotten anywhere without you and Steve looking into it.

We asked the DWP whether it would pay Ms Plant interest on her late payments or compensation for the long delay in resolving her state pension increase and arrears. He declined to comment.

“Delay adds insult to injury,” says Steve Webb

“The Government has admitted that around £1 billion in underpaid pensions are owed to women like Mrs Plant, who missed out on National Insurance protection for time spent raising a family,” says Steve Webb, former Minister for Social Affairs. Pensions and now This is Money’s Retirement. columnist.

“In trying to find people, HMRC has sent out more than a quarter of a million letters and this will no doubt have led to an increase in applications.

‘A well-run Government would have increased capacity at HMRC to address these claims and at DWP to determine the impact on state pensions where NI records have been updated.

‘But we hear too often that the HRP has been granted and yet people are in limbo waiting for the DWP to take action.

LCP partner Webb adds: “This delay adds insult to injury given how long people may have been underpaid.”

“While the DWP has other priorities, such as processing additional pension credit claims, this should not come at the expense of addressing long-standing state pension underpayments.”

Another former Pensions Minister, Ros Altmann, who now sits in the House of Lords, says: “Many of these poor pensioners are experiencing problems and delays due to a lack of communication between HMRC and DWP and each department believes the other is responsible.”

“Unfortunately, the DWP is the department responsible for paying pensions and has a huge backlog of cases to resolve.”

Regarding Ms Plant’s experience, he says: “Clearly your intervention has taken this case to the top of the list, but it is worrying that so much time and energy is being wasted trying to resolve things.”

‘It is not clear there is an easy answer as there are so many mistakes that need to be corrected and the DWP is also diverting staff to the pension credit campaign to make up for the loss of winter fuel payments and assess applications for a large number of people.

“The decision on winter fuel payments greatly increases the pressure on DWP resources, which were already stretched to the limit before.”