State pensioners are being left with lower payments from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) than anticipated.
800,000 state pensioners face lower DWP payments over HMRC error
HMRC has overvalued 800,000 state pensions – with workers at risk of retirements “built on sand” after a forecasting error. State pensioners are being left with lower payments from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) than anticipated.
State pensioners face lower DWP payments because a problem with HMRC’s online forecast tool has not been fixed for nine years. The Telegraph newspaper has exposed how the online state pension forecast tool has left 800,000 at risk.
Hundreds of thousands of users could have since received forecasts that were too high, the newspaper has revealed today (Friday February 6). The issue first came to light in 2017, before two years later, the number impacted hit 360,000 people.
READ MORE Major mobile phone used by millions being cut off – users urged to upgrade
Now, the error has been fixed for workers who are reaching state pension age before April 2029. But the taxman says some people due to reach state pension age after this date were still incorrectly being told they would receive the full amount and did not need to make extra payments.
Former Liberal Democrats pensions minister Sir Steve Webb said workers were at risk of retirements “built on sand”.
Sir Steve said: “When people request a state pension forecast to use as the basis for their retirement planning, they should be in a position to be confident that the information they have received is accurate. But in too many cases, it seems that this was not so.
“Although it is sometimes possible to put things right, perhaps by paying voluntary contributions to top up your state pension, not everyone will be able to afford to do this.
“In this digital era, everything possible should be done to make sure that current state pension forecasts are right first time and don’t leave people finding that their retirement plans were built on foundations of sand.”
HMRC said: “We apologise to those whose online state pension forecasts failed to include contracted out deductions – but while this error shouldn’t have happened, it’s important to stress that ultimately no one’s state pension calculation has been affected.
“Anyone with contracted out deductions who is eligible to increase their pension by making voluntary contributions may still do so.”