Overview

• The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed £450 million in state pension underpayments during the last tax year, primarily due to errors in National Insurance records and missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) credits.
• HRP credits, meant to safeguard pension rights for carers from 1978 to 2010, were often unrecorded, leaving many pensioners short-changed.
• Additional underpayments arose from overlooked pension components and failures to update records after changes in marital status, affecting inherited entitlements and automatic increases.
• The DWP also reported £190 million in overpayments, with £110 million attributed to official errors—a threefold increase from the previous year—and £80 million to claimant mistakes.
• Experts and former ministers are urging the DWP to address these systemic issues, emphasizing the complexity of administering a £142 billion pension system that supports over 12 million people.