Women’s underpaid state pension

superskihaddock

I recently called DWP to claim my deceased mother’s underpaid state pension, which I understood would fall within the rules according to everything I’ve read - only to be receive a letter advising -  “you could have made a claim on behalf of ...following their death, but the time period has now ended” and this should have been within 6 months of d.o.d.  I thought the underpayment issue had only come to light in 20/21?

TVAS

Contact Steve Webb ex pensions minister who now works for LCP. He brought this to light i 2020-21 as you say.
 Steve.Webb@lcp.uk.com
https://www.lcp.uk.com/is-your-state-pension-being-underpaid/
Extract from their web page:

*STOP PRESS* 

The DWP announced at the start of March 2021 that they will be checking hundreds of thousands of pension records to see if people have been underpaid.  This means that some married women, widows and those aged over 80 should get payments without having to take any action.  But other groups, such as married women whose husband turned 65 before 17th March 2008 and women who divorced after pension age, will still need to contact the Department if they want their pension to be reassessed.  This web page gives more information about the position of different groups, as well as a calculator for married women to see if they are being underpaid.

superskihaddock

Many thanks  TVAS I’ll do that and post the response

Thrugelmir

Plenty of information in the public domain. Those impacted will be contacted. The exercise is expected to take until the end of 2023. 

3card

Thrugelmir said:

Plenty of information in the public domain. Those impacted will be contacted. The exercise is expected to take until the end of 2023. 

I have asked this question a few times and still cant see a real answer.
I believe my Mom may have been underpaid after my Dads death but if i leave it to for authorities to notify us how with they do it?
My Mom didnt require probate so it wont be that way? Obviously her address before death is no longer applicable.

TVAS

When these govt types make a mistake and overpay they are quick to hassle you for the money. Now it is the other way around they have already said it will take at least 5 years blah blah blah. I did a contract tidying up records for the Civil Service pension. Me and my girlfriend found the work really easy and  we got through the work so quickly whereas the staff spent time chatting and doing NO WORK. 
3Card write to them quote your mummy's NI number send recorded delivery.

44ALLAN44

I also contacted DWP regarding my deceased Mother's pension.My Father died in 1986
at the age of 64.....6 month before retirement after working all his life. My mum died in 2007 at the age of 86.
DWP sent a letter saying they will not review my request because my Mother should have made a separate claim for the higher rate of the State pension after my Father died, but she obviously didn't know that.
They also say that I should have made a claim within 6 month of her dying.
It appears that all of my Fathers pension contributions and my mums entitlement to some of it have been deposited into the governments coffers.......maybe paid for the new kitchen in No.11 !.

hyubh

TVAS said:

When these govt types make a mistake and overpay they are quick to hassle you for the money. Now it is the other way around they have already said it will take at least 5 years blah blah blah. I did a contract tidying up records for the Civil Service pension. Me and my girlfriend found the work really easy and  we got through the work so quickly whereas the staff spent time chatting and doing NO WORK.

CSPS admin is outsourced...?

sparky0138

My mum's currently waiting for a response on this after enquiring about her deceased mother's state pension. I expect she will get a reply similar to the ones mentioned above. I just don't understand how they can say a claim should have been made within 6 months of date of death, when the whole point of all this is that people just weren't aware you had to make a claim.

The government's own website has an article which states: "For each group of individuals affected, DWP IT systems produce an electronic prompt to consider if an individual’s State Pension amount should be increased. The prompt requires DWP staff to take further manual action and, in some cases, this did not take place" - so they admit the fault is theirs but apparently the onus was on us to somehow know about this fault (when even they didn't know) and make the claim. It just doesn't make any sense.

If my mum gets a similar response, I think I will encourage her to complain.

sparky0138

For those who contacted DWP, how long did it take to get a reply please?

littlemissbossy

sparky0138 said:

For those who contacted DWP, how long did it take to get a reply please?

I contacted the DWP regarding my late MIL's state pension in November 2020, in March 2021 I received a text to say they would reply within 12 weeks..... that date has been and gone!