DWP warning to thousands of women over State Pension back payments

Thousands of women are potentially in line for average payouts of £5,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions. The payouts are linked to a State Pension back payment issue stemming from National Insurance contribution errors.

The DWP has warned that due to an oversight regarding Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP), around 210,000 women, born before 1964, could be affected by these changes.

Steve Webb, a former pensions minister, highlighted that over 250,000 people past pension age have been contacted by HMRC with the possibility of eligibility, and letters are now also being sent to those below pension age. "Anyone who has received such a letter should make sure that they respond so that their position can be checked," he advised.

Entitlement may apply to those who claimed child benefit from 1978/1979 onward, or in cases where one's partner claimed, it might be possible to reallocate the benefit if the 'wrong' parent made the claim. However, if individuals paid the married women's stamp while claiming child benefit during this period, HRP cannot boost your pension.

Moreover, if you contributed to standard rate NI contributions and sufficiently earned to count as a full year for pension purposes, HRP would not enhance your pension, reports Birmingham Live.

Baroness Ros Altmann, who previously served as Pensions Minister and is currently in the House of Lords, commented on the situation: "So many of these poor pensioners are experiencing problems and delays because of a lack of communication between HMRC and DWP and each department believes the other is responsible."

"Sadly the DWP is the department responsible for actually paying the pensions out and they have huge backlogs of cases to deal with. It's not clear there is any easy answer while there are so many errors which need correcting and the DWP is also currently diverting staff to the pension credit campaign to offset the loss of Winter Fuel Payments and assess claims from huge numbers of people."

"The Winter Fuel Payment decision is adding hugely to the pressure on DWP resources which were already stretched before."