Missing pension money: Find out what information to give the DWP if your parent has died below
Many women have died without knowing they were owed huge sums in state pension after shocking errors by the Government stretching back decades.
Their adult children have deluged This is Money with enquiries about their late parents’ lost pension money.
Some of these families might never see a penny – but for many it’s still worth scouring the records and sending their details to the Department for Work and Pensions.
The National Audit Office revealed in its official report into the state pension debacle that deceased people’s records are destroyed, either after four years or after the death of a surviving spouse.
The DWP apparently has no idea how many pensioners have died while unwittingly being underpaid state pension due to its incompetence.
As of last month, it also had no formal plan to trace relatives in these cases, including where it holds information on next of kin, according to the NAO.
Unsurprisingly, Parliament’s spending watchdog has recommended the DWP comes up with a plan soon.
It suggests a process allowing beneficiaries or executors of estates to ask if deceased women were underpaid, to help tackle cases where the DWP cannot trace relatives.
Meanwhile, the DWP recently gave us guidance on what information bereaved families who suspect their relatives were underpaid could provide – see below.
It confirmed that it can investigate without a National Insurance number, contradicting its own call centre staff who declined to help one of our readers without one.
Former Pensions Minister Steve Webb, who uncovered the state pension scandal with This is Money, says his advice to executors and beneficiaries is to write a letter to the DWP with as many details as they can muster.
This is so that they will have written proof they contacted the DWP if needed, and because it is often difficult to get through on the phone.
But Webb is worried many families of women whose records have been destroyed will miss out on backpayments.
He warns women in this group might never be identified unless families have old DWP paperwork or bank statements – the latter can list NI numbers next to the state pension payments so are worth searching out – and come forward to claim.
The NAO says that from from April 2021 onward, the DWP has started keeping records of pensioners that die.
However, the news about destroyed records is another dismal development for those wanting the DWP to do its duty to elderly women.
This is Money has reported on cases of women suffering a catalogue of errors and being repeatedly ignored or fobbed off by its staff.
We have also covered cases of widows who lost out on more than £100,000 over two decades, and already explored two tragic situations where women died unaware they were owed tens of thousands of pounds.
The DWP has already let so many people down. It must now get its act together and find a way to help families whose relatives were deprived of the state pension they should have received during their lives.
What information should you give the DWP if your parent has died?
Many bereaved adult children have written to This is Money asking how to check whether their late parents lost out on state pension.
Anyone who wishes to do so should contact the DWP – its details are here. If you prefer to write, you can input your postcode here to find an address.
If you think your parent’s records might have been destroyed, it is worth giving the DWP as much detail – and especially copies of old pension and bank statements – that you can to show they were underpaid.
We recently asked the DWP what information it needs, and it said: ‘Ideally, we would require a National Insurance number from someone who believes their deceased parents were underpaid state pension.
‘However, if this is not available, their full name, date of birth and address can be used to locate the claim records.’
After This is Money heard from a reader who said DWP staff told them they couldn’t look into a deceased person’s pension without an NI number, the DWP said this was not the case and it was willing to investigate any specific instances where this had occurred.
Try to have as much of the following information to hand as possible if you phone, or include it in any letter.
Name of deceased person
Date of birth and death
NI number
Most recent basic state pension – this can be found on the annual statement, but if not give the total weekly or monthly amount
Last known address
…
Spouse’s name
Date of birth (and date of death if this applies)
NI number
Current basic state pension, or last known before death
Address
…
Your own address and phone number
It is a good idea to keep a record of the dates you phone up and what was said, or copies of your letters. You could consider sending them by registered post.
Since NI numbers would be useful if not essential to have, you can check your parents’ old state pension statements, and also their bank statements on which these generally appear.
What information should you give the DWP if your parent has died?
If you are the executor of an estate, you can contact the bank into which state pension was paid to ask for information and old statements. Old benefits documents and health records might also include NI numbers.
Steve Webb’s firm LCP has launched an online tool to help older married women work out if they are getting the correct amount, and if you have enough details about your late mother you could use this too.
LCP has a separate web page for widows (and widowers) and again this might be useful for working out whether parents who have died were underpaid.
But Webb stresses that the LCP websites are simply designed as useful tools, and anyone with any doubt about the amount of pension they are receiving should contact the DWP.
You can also write to This is Money at [email protected]. We will help if we can, but we receive huge numbers of messages about this and are not always able to reply. Please put DWP CLAIMS in the subject line.
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