STATE PENSION FORECAST ERRORS

Papa_Roo

In May 2023 as a result of MSE advice my wife contacted Department of Works and Pension to seek an estimate and maybe pay for the outstanding years contributions to be able to received full pension which at that time would have been £185:15, this was due to the then proposed cut off date of 31st July 2023 for such additional payments. After chatting to the help desk / advice line it was established that a sum of £3,910:50 was payable to cover an identified 5 years shortfall , the DWP staff member had calculated the most cost effective years to achieve this figure owed. An uplift in the pension at that time was quoted as being £158:69 to £185:15, this it was decided to be worth it so the payment was made. 

The sum was paid and the Gov.uk online system was eventually updated to indicate her entitlement to Full Pension (unfortunately we did not screenshot the page!). 

The government then on 12th June 2023 extended the cut off date to 5th April 2025.

Fast forward to June 2025 and my wife receives a letter from Dept of Works and Pension advising of her pension start date. Curiosity kicks in and she decides as the letter suggests to check online the current pension entitlement only to find she is no longer entitled to full pension but is now an additional three years short !!!!!

Today (16/7/25) when speaking to DWP staff again on the advice / helpline they have confirmed that the original advice given in 2023 was incorrect and the sum paid did not as stated fill the gaps in her contribution record and a further payment will be necessary to achieve full pension. DWP called back within a couple of hours and offered her the option to pay at the previous years rate which is obviously a saving of sorts, however call me suspicious but this cannot be correct surely ? 

Had the original deadline of July 2023 be maintained then no further payment could have been made to the system, is there anyone out there in a similar position as I somehow feel that as the wrong advise in 2023 was given or the system was incorrectly identifying the sums to be paid to achieve the desired outcome of a full pension my wife cannot be the only one ? 

A letter of complaint is being drafted however how much good that will do I dod not know ANY SUGGESTIONS ????

Hoenir

Papa_Roo said:

A letter of complaint is being drafted however how much good that will do I dod not know ANY SUGGESTIONS ????

People do make mistakes at work. You've been offered a reasonable solution. What more are you expecting. Complaining to a large corporate organisation about an individual error is akin to water running off a duck's back . 

DRS1

If you still know the details of what years were unfilled in 2023 what the years were that were filled by the payment she made then there are people on here who can confirm if there was a mistake made in 2023.  They might even know what that mistake was - eg filling years pre 2016 perhaps.

It certainly seems odd to go from being full to being 3 years short.

molerat

The amount paid certainly tallies with 5 years uplift and there have been several cases on here of things going wrong, does she have access to her on line tax account ? It is either a case of 5 years were needed to make the full pension achievable with future contributions or the funds were allocated to pre 2016 years when they would make no difference, the latter would be easily correctable at probably minimal cost.  To help we would need more information -

Current weekly £££.pp amount.
Number of full NI years 15-16 and earlier
Number of full NI years 16-17 and later
Was she in a contracted-out pension scheme, NHS, local government, civil service etc
Years which were purchased

QrizB

Papa_Roo said:

In May 2023  ...

In May 2023, the full NSP was £203.85. It was £185.15 for 2022/23. I think you must've called earlier than you recall.

It seems likely to me that the £158.59 forecast was obtained during 22/23 and was predicated on your wife making full NI payments for 22/23, 23/24 and 24/25. These are the three years that are now missing and need topping up.

Papa_Roo

molerat said:

The amount paid certainly tallies with 5 years uplift and there have been several cases on here of things going wrong, does she have access to her on line tax account ? It is either a case of 5 years were needed to make the full pension achievable with future contributions or the funds were allocated to pre 2016 years when they would make no difference, the latter would be easily correctable at probably minimal cost.  To help we would need more information -

Current weekly £££.pp amount.
Number of full NI years 15-16 and earlier
Number of full NI years 16-17 and later
Was she in a contracted-out pension scheme, NHS, local government, civil service etc
Years which were purchased

Entitlement now £213:63 / week 

NI 15-16 (earlier) - 33 years recorded as full years
NI 16-17 (later) - 2 years recorded as full years 

worked until 2007 - in contracted out scheme for part of employment 

years purchased 07-08 / 08-09 / 09-10/ 20-21 / 21-22 

molerat

On the face of it purchasing those 3 pre 2016 years made no difference to her pension as she would likely be limited to a maximum of 30 useable years.  Were you advised to purchase those particular years or did you just buy any available ?  It should hopefully be fairly straight forward to speak to HMRC and get those 3 years re-allocated to post 2016 years which would change the forecast to the full amount with possibly a fairly small payment.  Note it is HMRC you need to speak to as DWP only deal with what you have on your record, HMRC are the keepers of that record.

If you click here https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-your-state-pension/account/cope whilst logged into your tax account that will give the COPE mount which will add confirmation to my above statement - anything over around £12 made additional pre 2016 years unviable.

Papa_Roo

molerat said:

On the face of it purchasing those 3 pre 2016 years made no difference to her pension as she would likely be limited to a maximum of 30 useable years.  W

Thank you for the time spent and responding, the DWP staff member selected the years as she said to make the sum payable as little as possible ! 

molerat

Papa_Roo said:

molerat said:

On the face of it purchasing those 3 pre 2016 years made no difference to her pension as she would likely be limited to a maximum of 30 useable years.  W

Thank you for the time spent and responding, the DWP staff member selected the years as she said to make the sum payable as little as possible ! 

In which case you have cause for complaint and have the payments re-allocated.  I thought that late on DWP were fully up to speed with correct allocations - in the early post 2016 years we knew more than they did - but it would seem not.

xylophone

You are saying that your wife had a total of 30 Qualifying Years at 6/4/16?

Her starting amount would have been the higher of

Old Rules

NIQY/30 (max) x £119.30 (Full Basic) + (Additional State  Pension - Deduction for Contracting Out)

£119.30 + (ASP - Deduction for Contracting Out)

New Rules

{NIQY/35 (max) x £155.65 (Full NSP)} - Contracted Out Pension Equivalent. 

£133.41 - COPE

What was the COPE?

Papa_Roo

xylophone said:

You are saying that your wife had a total of 30 Qualifying Years at 6/4/16?

Her starting amount would have been the higher of

Old Rules

NIQY/30 (max) x £119.30 (Full Basic) + (Additional State  Pension - Deduction for Contracting Out)

£119.30 + (ASP - Deduction for Contracting Out)

New Rules

{NIQY/35 (max) x £155.65 (Full NSP)} - Contracted Out Pension Equivalent. 

£133.41 - COPE

What was the COPE?

🤯🤯🤯 Will need to come back to you when I understand (🤞🏼) it all !!!