State pension underpayments have become a hot topic for retirees in recent months as the DWP assured it would rectify the issue. In March, the OBR broke down how some women in certain working arrangements and relationship statuses saw their state pensions underpaid by thousands.
In light of these problems, women are being encouraged to contact DWP to get what they're owed with Sir Steve Webb, former pensions minister and partner at LCP, detailing these payouts from the Government could hit the £100million mark.
On this problem, the DWP has assured people it is making efforts to correct the mistake, as Guy Opperman, the Pensions Minister, confirmed to MPs: "What we’re dealing with here is a junior civil servant at the DWP, who at some stage sometime 12 to 20 years ago failed to update a particular entitlement of a particular person.
“Not everybody, in fact, we’re clear it’s definitely not the majority, but some individual claims have not been manually uprated by an individual working in a pension centre.”
A DWP spokesperson also said: "We are aware of a number of cases where individuals have been underpaid state pension.
“We corrected our records and reimbursed those affected as soon as errors were identified.
On top of contacting the DWP, people can get a state pension forecast ahead of retiring through the Government's website.
The Government has a free-to-use tool which allows users to find out how much state pension they could get, when they can get it and how it can be increased.
Additionally, for those who are reaching their state pension age in more than 30 days, a BR19 application form can be completed or the Future Pension Centre can be called, who will then post a forecast out.
State pensions can only be claimed from the age of 66 going forward and in the coming years, the state pension age will rise to 68.
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