Was my Mother's State Pension underpaid?

whizzywoo

I'm a little confused by the recent threads and articles surrounding Widows' state pension underpayments.  I've read all the threads and articles but can't seem to understand if my Mother was underpaid or not.  I think not but I'm not sure.

My Mother was born on 19th January 1933 and reached State Pension Age on the 19th January 1993, aged 60 years.
However my father died n February 1977 aged 51 years.  He had worked for all his adult life and paid National Insurance Contributions, as far as I am aware.
My Mother never remarried and died nearly 4 years ago in March 2017.

Because my Father never reached State Pension Age does this possible underpayment still apply?  After all this time I don't have any access to his National Insurance Number.

My Mother worked for most of her adult life, although mainly in low paid, part time jobs.  She did pay some National Insurance Contributions.  She did NOT opt for the reduced married woman's stamp.  She never received a Widow's pension because she was under the age threshold when my father died, but she did receive a widowed mother's allowance for maybe 3 or 4 years until my youngest sibling left college. She always said that she only received three quarters of the full State Pension because she didn't have enough stamps paid.

When she died in March 2017 she was receiving a State Pension weekly amount of £99.32.  I don't know how this was made up but I do know that it did NOT include any Pension Credit.  I could probably find the paperwork somewhere but not sure.  According to information I've been able to find, the basic state pension in the 2016/17 year was £119.30, so she was receiving approximately 83% of the basic amount.  My understanding is that only if a widow is receiving less than 60% they would have been underpaid.  Is my thinking correct?

anmarj

before 1975, people paid what was known as Graduated retirement benefit, it was stopped and changed over in 1975 as it noted that the GRB was not as good as they thought it would be, the only way your mum would have got the full basic SP had your late father had a full (44 years) NI record from 1975 plus any that she had.  she would have inhertied various elements as well from him. 

whizzywoo

anmarj said:

before 1975, people paid what was known as Graduated retirement benefit, it was stopped and changed over in 1975 as it noted that the GRB was not as good as they thought it would be, the only way your mum would have got the full basic SP had your late father had a full (44 years) NI record from 1975 plus any that she had.  she would have inhertied various elements as well from him. 

@anmarj .  Yes I remember Graduated Retirement Benefit, even paid into it myself for a while.
But I am still not clear if my late Mother actually benefited or should have benefited from any increase in her basic State Pension given that my Father died in 1977 when he was only 51 years old.

anmarj

She wouldn’t have inherited 60% because she was a widow when she became state pension age. She would have inherited elements from her late husband’s record up to the point of his death - graduated retirement benefits/any additional state pension. She may or may not inherited the two years basic pension that her late husband had contributed to prior to his death, but that would have been all. 

Thrugelmir

No need to apply in any event. Going to be a huge multi year exercise where people impacted or their heirs will be contacted in due course. 

whizzywoo

Thrugelmir said:

No need to apply in any event. Going to be a huge multi year exercise where people impacted or their heirs will be contacted in due course. 

Whilst I appreciate what you are saying @Thrugelmir, I can't imagine how the DWP will contact my Mother's heirs.
It's probably going to take several years to sort out.  

One of my brothers now lives in Spain and my other brother has moved several times in the 4 years since she died.  I am more than likely to move in the next couple of years and to be honest if money was owing to my Mother she would want us to benefit from it now, not a few years down the line.

I wonder how they are prioritising the investigations.  I imagine that widows still living will, quite rightly, be well in front of widows who have died.