Mothers 'may have been underpaid £1 billion in State Pension payments'

12 Jul 2023

Mothers may have been underpaid around £1 billion in State Pension payments, according to research published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Some mothers' national insurance records are missing information, according to the DWP, which led to workers being underpaid their State Pension. As part of government plans to correct the issue, affected workers will receive a letter from the DWP.

HMRC will use national insurance records to identify as many women as possible who may have been entitled to home responsibilities protection (HRP) between 1978 and 2010 and currently do not have any HRP credits on their national insurance record.

A government spokesperson commented: 'Most people's records will be unaffected, and we will shortly be launching a new online tool to help people check whether they need to claim. HMRC will also begin writing to those likely to be affected from the autumn.

'Our priority is ensuring everyone receives the financial support to which they are entitled, and State Pension underpayment rates due to official error remain low at 0.5% of expenditure. Where errors do occur, we are committed to fixing them as quickly as possible.'