HUNDREDS of thousands of households are at risk of missing out on an average £6,000 state pension boost, Martin Lewis has warned.
Speaking on The Martin Lewis Money Show on ITV yesterday, he noted women may have been underpaid the state pension for years.
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If you’re married or a widow and you hit state pension age before April 2016, he urged you to check if you’re due a payout.
This specifically applies if you rely on your husband’s pension contributions, and your basic state pension was less than 60% of his.
The average amount that you could get back is £6,000, according to Martin.
But you could be owed more or less – in fact, one grandma won back £82,000 a couple of years ago after watching Martin’s show.
Another said she recently got a check for £18,000, although noted that the process took seven months.
On the show, Martin said you’ll get an automatic top-up now and it should be backdated, if any of the following applies:
- Husband turned 65 before March 8 (and you’re getting under 60%)
- Divorced after state pension age and pension less than ex-husband
- Stayed home and got child benefit/carer’s support since April 1978
The payments are going out after a government IT error which meant the Pension Strategy Computer System couldn’t accurately uprate an element of the State Pension for 30 years.
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It means thousands of women who retired before 2016 didn’t receive their full entitlement to the state pension.
After this date, women’s pensions were no longer linked to their husbands.
Estimates show that retirees were underpaid £1billion in total because of the blunder.
If it was between April 2008 and 2016, you’ll get all your losses back as the Government should have increased your pension automatically.
Those whose husbands retired before 2008 had to apply for the extra cash, although in many cases they lost out because they didn’t know about it.
Women in this position can only get a year of backdated payments.
How to check if you’ve been underpaid
An online tool was launched by former pensions minister Steve Webb on behalf of actuarial firm LCP, after he first uncovered cases of women being paid the wrong state pension.
If you use the LCP calculator and think you’re eligible for a top-up in either scenario, then the DWP should pick up the error in their own records too.
The DWP is contacting those affected, but many women could still be missing out on thousands of pounds.
It started working to fix the problem on January 11, 2021 and says it expects to make repayments by the end of 2023.
If you are owed money, you’ll likely have to sit tight and wait for the DWP to send you a letter confirming your payment.
For more information, you can call the Pension Service too.
Martin Lewis has urged 230,000 people to check if they’re owed cash.
Meanwhile, a pensions expert has revealed how you could build a retirement pot of £330,000 for the cost of a daily coffee.
