DWP website for families of underpaid pensioners ‘long overdue’
The Department for Work and Pensions has launched a dedicated website page to help families of those who have died but were underpaid their state pension.
The page, which went live on July 8, allows next of kin to request more information if they think a family member who has died is still owed a portion of their pension.
The government department said this could help families of those who were married, divorced or widowed when they died, or those aged 80 or over when they died, and who did not get the automatic increase in their pension that they were entitled to.
In its latest report, DWP estimates it has underpaid 237,000 state pensioners a total of £1.46bn, with underpayments dating as far back as 1985.
A report by the Public Accounts Committee published in January 2022 found around 40,000 of these people are deceased.
Commenting on the website page launch, former pensions minister and partner at LCP, Steve Webb, said: “It is welcome, although long overdue, that DWP has provided a way for families to check if a loved one was underpaid state pension.”
Webb said he “regularly” hears from people who say an elderly relative was convinced their state pension was too low and who “want justice” for someone who is no longer with us.
“This website will allow next of kin and executors to provide details in such cases and get them looked into,” he explained.
Webb said he hopes a much higher proportion of underpayments will result in a payout.
“This process obviously comes too late to benefit the person who was underpaid but at least their family will receive some compensation for the error”.
The department, whose pensions minister Guy Opperman resigned and then was re-appointed last week, aims to complete its review of state pension underpayments on schedule by the end of 2023 for two of the three affected groups.
However, the department revealed last week that this deadline will now not be met for the largest affected group - widowed pensioners.
Currently, around 510 civil servants are working on this project within the DWP. But earlier this year, Thérèse Coffey, the secretary of state for work and pensions, said the government intends to get this up to 1,500 civil servants by the end of 2022.
A DWP spokesperson said: “The action we are taking now will correct historical underpayments made by successive governments. We are fully committed to addressing these errors, not identified under previous governments, as quickly as possible.
"We have set up a dedicated team and devoted significant resources towards completing this – alongside publishing guidance for next of kin – with further resources being allocated throughout 2022 and 2023 towards the underpayments exercise."
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
