Martin Lewis has issued a warning to women aged 40 and over who could be owed thousands of pounds in underpaid State Pension due to an “error” made by the government
Martin Lewis urges women to check state pension for ‘error’ to see if owed(Image: pixelfit via Getty Images)
Martin Lewis has issued a crucial alert to women over 40 regarding a State Pension “error” that could mean they’re due substantial sums from HMRC. Those who took career breaks for childcare between 1978 and 2010 might be entitled to thousands in National Insurance contributions.
Having insufficient National Insurance contributions can lead to a reduced State Pension upon retirement. Individuals may discover gaps in their NI record if they were caring for children and missed out on ‘Home Responsibilities Protection’ which they were entitled to receive.
The consumer champion is now encouraging individuals to verify their eligibility for enhancing their State Pension by reclaiming these contributions, as the Government has ceased proactively informing people about potential reimbursements.
On The Martin Lewis podcast, he explained: “This is an important heads up about a State Pension error that mainly affects women between the ages of 40 and 90 and especially those in their 60s and 70s because it’s for people who took time off work between 1978 and 2010 to look after their children or to care for someone who is long-term disabled.
“You were meant to have got a thing called Home Responsibilities Protection which should have given you National Insurance years to replace the ones you weren’t getting by working”, reports the Manchester Evening News. “And you need those national insurance years to get a full State Pension. But it’s possible over a 100,000 women didn’t. And while the government had been trying to contact those women, it has stopped doing so now.
“So the onus is on you. To show you how big this could be, Silla got in touch with me and said, ‘I’ve just received 15 years back pay from HMRC of £31,674 for underpayment of my pension. Thank you.’ So, what you need to do is you need to go on to gov.uk to see if you’re projected to get the full State Pension. If you’re not, you need to see when your gaps in years were. Were they between 1978 and 2010?
“And if so, were they the years that you were not working to look after your children or someone who or someone who had long-term disabilities. If they were, you need to go and do your research on home responsibilities protection because you could be owed money.”
It comes after recent figures revealed there is more than £800 million owed by the government in State Pension underpayments. The figures come after the DWP announced in 2021 that they would be checking hundreds of thousands of pension records to see if people have been underpaid.
One of the State Pension correction exercises it is looking into is the missing historic periods of HRP. Between January 8 and September 30, 2024, the exercise identified 5,344 underpayments, with total arrears of around £42 million.
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Sir Steve Webb, a former Liberal Democrat pensions minister, who has been exposing State Pension errors, said the amounts paid out under the current HRP exercise are expected to rise sharply as it gathers momentum. A previous HRP correction exercise over a decade ago led to State Pension arrears payments of £83 million.
Sir Steve, who is now a partner at consultants LCP (Lane Clark and Peacock), said: “The vast majority of those who lost were women, some of whom were underpaid for decades or even went to their grave never paid the right State Pension.
“The remaining corrections need to be handled as a matter of urgency. This should never be allowed to happen again.”
“A DWP spokesperson said: “Our priority is ensuring pensioners receive the dignity and security they deserve in retirement and that State Pension underpayment rates remain as low as possible.
“We have now completed the vast majority of cases in the exercise as planned with a small number of outstanding cases due to further documentation needed from the customer.”
The DWP recently announced its expectation to settle all remaining State Pension underpayment cases by the end of March 2027.
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