Since January 2021, the government has been working on addressing underpayments of State Retirement Pension for clients who should have received an automatic uplift-
eg for married women- under the old state pension system(pre April 2016 retirements), married women could claim a basic state pension(category B) at 60 per cent of the full rate based on their husband’s contributions where this would be greater than the pension they could get based on their own contributions. Since 17 March 2008 this uplift should have happened automatically while before that date a married woman had to make a second claim when her husband turned 65. However, the automatic uplift has not been applied to all claimants that are potentially entitled to it. or
people who have been widowed and their state pension was not uplifted to include amounts they are entitled to inherit from their late husband, wife or civil partner; or
people who have not been paid category D state pension uplift as they should have been from age 80.
The table below gives details on some underpayments already remedied as at 31/10/2023. The exercise will take a further year with another 300,000 individuals having been identified as underpaid.
Clients should be automatically informed if they have been underpaid. Initial estimates were that £3 billion is due.(para. 383). A separate set of underpayments relates to those who pre 2010 did not get HRP (carers or those with Child Benefit). This could total over a £1 billion. These claims for home responsibilities protection(HRP) would need to be claimed. Book now Benefits for Older People 2025