Tens of thousands of women who have been underpaid their State Pension may have to wait nearly three years to receive back payments from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), worth a collective total estimated to be around £2.7billion.
An administration error identified in March 2020 by pensions consultants Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP), showed that underpayments affected married women whose husbands reached State Pension age before 2008 and who were unknowingly entitled to an ‘enhanced pension’ that would have boosted their monthly payments by up to 60 per cent.
Subsequent DWP investigations between May and December 2020 uncovered a systematic underpayment of State Pension, meaning tens of thousands of married, divorced and widowed women may have been missing out on extra money since 2008.
Documents released by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in March said: “Our forecast reflects an initial estimate that it will cost around £3billion over the six years to 2025-26 to address these underpayments."
And now, Mirror Online reports that these retired women may have to wait up to two and a half years for their pension rebate.
DWP are hiring a 500-strong team to trawl through the pension underpayments, but despite tripling the number of staff, it will still take until the ‘end of 2023’ to work through all cases, ministers admitted.
Women began getting repayments in January and the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated it could take until 2026 to fix.
On Wednesday, Pensions minister Guy Opperman announced 360 staff will be recruited this year, adding to 150 already hired.
He said that would "speed up" repayments but added he now had "the aim to complete the exercise by the end of 2023".
An unknown number of women have died before getting what they were owed.
Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb, a partner at pension consultants LCP, told the Mirror Online : "It's welcome that they are trebling the number of people working on the programme.
“But it does still mean that some women who were underpaid will have to wait at least another two years to get their right pension.
"They shouldn't have to wait."
He added: "It's a reminder of the scale of the problem - the fact they have to employ over 500 people for the next two to three years shows just how many retired women and widows are affected."
Previous estimates have suggested around 200,000 women could be owed payouts averaging £13,500, but Mr Opperman told MPs it was too soon to estimate how many people will get payouts or what they will be worth.
Women who may have been affected are being urged not to contact the UK Government and will be written to if they are due a payout.
Mr Opperman said: "We are fully committed to ensuring that any historical errors are addressed as quickly as possible to ensure that individuals receive the State Pension they are rightfully due in law."
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