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Thousands of retired Britons \u2013 many of them women – who were underpaid on their State Pension have received more than \u00a3570 million in back payments, it has emerged.<\/p>\n
Between January 11, 2021, and February 29, 2024 some 97,016 under payments were identified adding up to \u00a3571.6m, according to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).<\/p>\n
However, some finance industry experts believe that as much as \u00a33billion could be owed to more than 237,000 pensioners.<\/p>\n
Dame Meg Hillier MP condemned the underpayments, which have led to real hardship for thousands of elderly people, as a \u201cshameful shambles\u201d.<\/p>\n
Affected groups include women retiring under the old state pension system. This is because many did not receive the state pension they were entitled to under their husband\u2019s national insurance record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The DWP’s latest ARA estimates the total amount of arrears due to be \u00a3835 million.<\/p>\n
The head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, Helen Morrissey, said: \u201cProgress is being made to rectify the large-scale issue of state pension underpayments, but it is very slow.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust over \u00a3571m has been returned so far but with estimates suggesting the scale of underpayments could be around \u00a31.5billion there\u2019s still a very long way to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have the expectation that the state pension they receive is correct but a series of errors in an already overly complicated system means that for many thousands of people this expectation has been incorrect.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome who queried the issue with DWP over the years were told there was no problem, and many have suffered real financial hardship as a result. These people have been let down and need resolution as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Tom Selby, director of public policy at AJ Bell, said: \u201cThe news that the DWP has now identified over \u00a3570 million in state pension underpayments is undoubtedly positive for the progress of its correction exercise, though there remains a long way to go if the near \u00a33billion in expected total costs are to be reconciled and sadly that means many more of those affected will still be awaiting payment.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThis saga is particularly tragic as many of the people affected will have been struggling unnecessarily for years. What\u2019s more, the National Audit Office (NAO) has previously estimated around 40,000 of the people who were due a repayment had died without receiving it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is absolutely critical all those affected by this scandal receive the money they are owed as quickly and efficiently as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce compensation has been paid, the government needs to undertake a comprehensive review of its processes to ensure these mistakes are never repeated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Selby said: \u201cTrust in pensions is fragile at the best of times and failures such as this will not help. Sadly, it will likely take years, if not decades, to rebuild the confidence lost as a result of this scandal.\u201d<\/p>\n
A DWP spokesperson said: \u201cThe action we are taking now is correcting historical underpayments made by successive governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur priority is ensuring pensioners receive the financial support to which they are entitled and we have set up a dedicated team and devoted significant resources towards completing the correction exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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[ad_1] Thousands of retired Britons \u2013 many of them women – who were underpaid on their State Pension have received more than \u00a3570 million in back payments, it has emerged. Between January 11, 2021, and February 29, 2024 some 97,016 under payments were identified adding up to \u00a3571.6m, according to the Department of Work and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}