DWP tracks down more half a billion pounds of state pension underpayments, latest count shows

An investigation launched by This is Money’s Tanya Jefferies and former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb saw the government find more than half a billion pounds in state pension underpayments at its latest count.

Today the Department for Work and Pensions said it had identified £571 million in state pension underpayments between January 11, 2021 and February 29, 2024.

This represents an increase of £74 million on the last count six months ago.

To date, almost 100,000 state pension underpayments have been located, with payments averaging around £5,900 each, the DWP said.

While this is a positive start, the DWP still has a long way to go. It is estimated that around £1 billion of total expected costs need to be reconciled.

For decades, many people, many of them widows, have been shortchanged, receiving lower state pensions than they were entitled to.

The scandal was uncovered by This is Money’s Sir Steve Webb and Tanya Jefferies, after launching an investigation into a reader’s question in Sir Steve’s weekly column in early 2020.

Fast forward and for the period January 11, 2021 to February 29, 2024, the DWP identified 97,016 underpayments totaling £571.6 million.

Sir Steve, partner at LCP, said: “There is still a long way to go to repay all these missing state pensions.

“With an estimated £1 billion to pay, the DWP is just over halfway through the process, but only has the end of this year to meet its deadline.

“With underpaid widows making up the largest group suffering, greater efforts must be made to pay all that is owed, in many cases to the elderly and vulnerable, as quickly as possible.”

Impact: In 2020, This is Money told the story of Audrey Watson, one of many people implicated in the state pension underpayment scandal.

This saga is a long-running scandal that has hampered the lives of hard-working people across the UK. Many of the people involved have been struggling needlessly for years.

Over the years, Tanya and Sir Steve have campaigned tirelessly to tell the stories of those affected.

In 2020, This is Money told the story of Audrey Watson, then aged 81, who received a 12-month back payment of around £1,500 after being paid too little for 13 years.

In the case of This is Money, Audrey Watson chose to lodge a protest with the Parliamentary Ombudsman in order to pursue the matter.

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In September 2021, the National Audit Office published a 56-page report entitled: “Investigation into the underpayment of state pensions”.

Tanya and Sir Steve’s role in bringing the scandal to the attention of authorities was made clear in the 2021 report.

It said: “The errors were brought to the attention of the department by individual pensioners and third party reports.

“Most notably Sir Steve Webb, the former Pensions Minister, and Tanya Jefferies of This is Money, provided the Department with examples of underpayment cases from January 2020 and published an estimate of underpayments in May 2020.”

Surprisingly, in its 2021 report, the National Audit Office said it was unclear how many pensioners had died while being involuntarily underpaid. It is estimated that their number could be around 40,000.

This is Money has a detailed guide for people who fear they have been caught up in the state pension underpayment scandal:

>> Underpaid state pensions for women: find out if YOU are among the 170,000 people affected – and what you should do