Correcting State Pension Underpayments: How To Reclaim Owed Funds From The DWP
- MAZ
- 3 minutes ago
- 12 min read
Correcting State Pension Underpayments: How to Reclaim Owed Funds from the DWP in the UK
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been running a correction exercise since January 2021 that has already identified 130,948 State Pension underpayments worth £804.7 million in arrears. The exercise covers married women, widows, widowers, and people aged over 80 whose pensions were set too low due to administrative errors and computer failures. A separate parallel exercise, focused on missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) credits for parents and carers between 1978 and 2010, has identified a further 12,379 cases worth approximately £104 million in arrears.
For the 2026/27 tax year, the full new State Pension is £230.25 per week and the maximum basic State Pension is £184.90 per week. If your pension falls short of what you are entitled to based on your National Insurance (NI) record and circumstances, the process for reclaiming it requires knowing which category applies to you, whether you need to act or wait for the DWP to contact you, and exactly what information to gather.
What Caused the Underpayments?
The roots of the problem are administrative and go back decades. The basic State Pension system that applied before April 2016 allowed married women to claim up to 60% of their husband's basic State Pension if their own entitlement was lower. This was known as the Category BL uplift. The problem arose because, in many cases, the DWP's systems failed to automatically apply this uplift when a husband reached age 65, when a widow's pension should have increased on her husband's death, or when a person reached age 80 and became entitled to a minimum payment regardless of their NI record.
The second issue, involving Home Responsibilities Protection, affected parents and carers between 1978 and 2010. HRP was a mechanism that reduced the number of qualifying NI years needed to receive a full basic State Pension for people who were not in paid employment because they were looking after children or a disabled person. The problem was that many women who claimed Child Benefit before May 2000 did not include their NI number on the claim form, which was not mandatory at the time, and as a result the HRP credits were never recorded on their NI record.
These are distinct problems requiring different approaches, and conflating them creates confusion about what action to take.
What this Widget is About: This interactive guide explains the ongoing Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) correction exercise concerning historic State Pension underpayments, helping you determine if you might be owed thousands of pounds in arrears. It breaks down the specific groups affected by these administrative errors—including married women, widows, and parents missing Home Responsibilities Protection credits—whilst detailing the exact steps required to reclaim your funds. To use the tool, simply click on the headings below to expand each section and discover the specific guidance tailored to your personal circumstances.
Which Groups Are Affected and Who Must Claim Proactively?
Not all affected people need to contact the DWP. Some receive automatic corrections; others must initiate the claim themselves.
Groups That Receive Automatic Corrections
The DWP contacts people who fall into certain categories automatically, without any need for the individual to act first. These include women whose husbands turned 65 on or after 17 March 2008, where the husband's State Pension came into payment after the system was updated and the automatic uplift should have applied; widows whose pension did not increase on their husband's death after 17 March 2008; and people aged 80 or over who are not receiving at least £110.75 per week in State Pension, as confirmed by the GOV.UK over-80 pension guidance.
Even within automatic categories, delays are common. If you fall into one of these groups and have not been contacted, contacting the DWP proactively will not guarantee you move up the queue, but it will create a record of your query and may prompt a faster review.
Groups That Must Contact the DWP Themselves
Several categories require the individual to make the claim actively. These are:
Married women on zero or very low basic State Pension, particularly those whose husbands turned 65 before 17 March 2008 and where the automatic systems were not updated in time. In some cases, women on zero basic State Pension whose husband's pension was paid under the old system can claim 60% of his basic State Pension entitlement backdated to the date their husband turned 65.
Women who divorced after reaching State Pension age. If a divorced woman had relied on her husband's NI record to qualify for a basic State Pension but her record was not updated after the divorce, she may be owed arrears.
Parents and carers who claimed Child Benefit before May 2000 without a NI number on the claim form, and who do not have HRP recorded on their NI record for the relevant years.
People in any category whose circumstances meant the DWP did not have enough information to identify them automatically.
How to Check Whether Your Pension Is Being Underpaid
The starting point is your State Pension amount. The full new State Pension for 2026/27 is £230.25 per week. If you reached State Pension age after 6 April 2016, you are on the new State Pension and the married women's uplift does not apply in the same way, though HRP corrections may still affect your record.
If you reached State Pension age before April 2016, you are on the basic State Pension. The maximum basic State Pension is £184.90 per week. If you are a married woman or widow currently receiving less than 60% of that maximum, which is approximately £110.94 per week, and your husband had a full NI record, this is a strong indicator that an underpayment may have occurred.
You can check your State Pension entitlement and your NI record using the GOV.UK service. For the NI record specifically, the Check your National Insurance record service on GOV.UK allows you to see which years have been credited and which are incomplete. For parents and carers who claimed Child Benefit between 1978 and 2010, the relevant years should show HRP or Carer's Credits. Gaps in those years, particularly for tax years between 1978 and 2010 when you were not in paid employment, are worth investigating.
How to Make a Claim: The Practical Steps
For the married women's category and widow corrections, the primary contact route is the Pension Service, telephone 0800 731 0469 (free to call, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm). When calling, have ready: your full name, date of birth, National Insurance number, your husband's NI number and date of birth, and the date of your marriage or civil partnership. If widowed, the date of your husband's death. If divorced, the date of the divorce. These details allow the Pension Service to check what your entitlement should be and identify the discrepancy.
For the HRP correction exercise, the route is different and involves HMRC rather than the DWP initially. The GOV.UK guidance on applying for Home Responsibilities Protection explains the eligibility criteria and how to apply. The application form is CF411, available from GOV.UK. Once HMRC adds the missing HRP to your NI record, the DWP can then reassess your State Pension entitlement and pay any arrears due.
If you are uncertain which category applies to you, calling the Pension Service is the safest starting point. They can look at your record and tell you whether a correction is due, which category it falls into, and whether you will be contacted automatically or need to continue pursuing the matter yourself.
State Pension Underpayment Reclamation Categories and Actions
Affected Group | Eligibility Criteria for Reclamation | How to Reclaim Funds |
Married Women (Category BL) | Reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 and personal pension is less than 60% of their husband's basic rate. Specifically affects those whose husbands reached age 65 before 17 March 2008 (requiring a claim) or after (mostly automatic). | If husband reached age 65 before 17 March 2008, must manually contact the Pension Service via phone (0800 731 0469) or online. Others are reviewed via the DWP LEAP exercise, but can check status using the LCP online calculator. |
Widowed Pensioners | Did not receive correct inherited amounts from a late spouse or civil partner, or were underpaid during the spouse's lifetime. Entitlement can be up to 100% of the basic state pension plus additional amounts. | The DWP is automatically reviewing cases via the LEAP exercise. If not contacted, individuals should call the Pension Service (0800 731 0469) or write to the DWP with the deceased's details (name, DOB, NI number, and date of death). |
Pensioners Over 80 (Category D) | Receiving a basic pension of less than the non-contributory benchmark (e.g. $£80.45$ or $£101.55$ depending on the year) regardless of NI record, provided they satisfy a basic residence test. | Most are corrected automatically through DWP system scans. If not received, contact the Pension Service (0800 731 0469) to verify eligibility and initiate a manual review or claim. |
Parents and Carers (HRP Omissions) | Claimed Child Benefit (formerly Family Allowance) for a child under 16, or provided care for a sick/disabled person between 1978 and 2010, with Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) missing from National Insurance records. | Check NI records via GOV.UK/HMRC. If gaps exist, submit form CF411 to HMRC to correct the record. Once updated, the DWP automatically recalculates the State Pension and pays any arrears due. |
What Arrears Might You Receive and How Are They Backdated?
The amount of arrears depends on the category and the duration of the underpayment. Some important distinctions apply here that are not always clearly explained.
For widows whose pension did not increase when their husband died after 17 March 2008, the arrears are backdated to the date of the husband's death. For married women entitled to the 60% uplift where the husband turned 65 on or after 17 March 2008, the arrears are backdated to whichever came later: the date the husband turned 65, or the date the wife reached State Pension age.
Where the husband turned 65 before 17 March 2008 and the married woman must make a proactive claim, the backdating rules are different and more restrictive. In most of these cases, the payment is only backdated by 12 months from the date of the claim. This is why acting promptly matters for this specific group. Waiting another year before making the claim means potentially losing a further 52 weeks of arrears.
The over-80 category has its own backdating rule: payment typically runs from the date the person reached 80, or the date they first became entitled to the pension, whichever is later.
Average arrears payments have ranged from approximately £2,192 to over £12,000 depending on the category, as confirmed by DWP published data. Some married women on zero basic State Pension, in particular those relying entirely on SERPS (State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme) and receiving nothing in basic State Pension, have received lump sum payments exceeding £40,000 covering many years of underpayment.
Are State Pension Arrears Taxable?
State Pension income is taxable. The standard annual personal allowance for the 2026/27 tax year is £12,570. The full new State Pension of £230.25 per week amounts to approximately £11,973 per year, just below the personal allowance. For many pensioners receiving only the State Pension, no income tax arises.
However, a lump sum arrears payment received in a single tax year adds to that year's income. Someone receiving £15,000 in arrears on top of their usual State Pension and any other income may find that part of the arrears payment exceeds their personal allowance and is taxable at 20% or at the applicable Scottish income tax rate.
The DWP does not automatically notify HMRC of arrears payments, and the pensioner may not realise that a large lump sum payment creates a Self Assessment obligation or a tax liability payable through PAYE code adjustment. If you receive a significant arrears payment, checking whether it creates a tax liability is worthwhile. HMRC will typically adjust the PAYE code for the following year, but where tax is underpaid in the year of receipt, interest may accrue.
For Scottish pensioners, the same calculation applies but at Scottish income tax rates. The Scottish starter rate of 19%, basic rate of 20%, and intermediate rate of 21% may apply to different portions of income depending on total income for the year.
What this Widget is About: This interactive explainer helps UK taxpayers understand whether they may have been underpaid State Pension due to historic DWP and HMRC errors, and shows exactly how to reclaim any money owed. It covers the main LEAP correction exercise for married women, widows, widowers and people over 80, as well as the separate Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) issue that still affects many parents and carers. Simply use the tabs at the top to move between sections, check the quick self-checklist, follow the step-by-step claiming guidance, and note the important contact numbers and backdating rules. Everything is presented in plain language so you can quickly see whether action is needed and what to do next.
Claims for Deceased Relatives: Next of Kin and Executors
Where a person who was entitled to a State Pension correction has already died, their estate may be able to recover the arrears. The DWP has provided a dedicated service for next of kin and executors to request information about potential underpayments. The GOV.UK guidance for requesting information about underpaid State Pension for someone who has died sets out the process, which involves providing the deceased's NI number, date of birth, date of death, and marital history.
There is no deadline for this type of claim, but acting promptly is sensible. The executor or next of kin will need access to relevant documents including the death certificate, marriage certificate, and, where applicable, the deceased's State Pension award letters. Arrears paid to the estate may form part of the estate value and therefore potentially affect Inheritance Tax calculations. Where the estate is already below the Inheritance Tax threshold, this is unlikely to create a new liability, but for larger estates the arrears should be included in the estate valuation.
Key Takeaways
The DWP's Legal Entitlements and Administrative Practice (LEAP) correction exercise has identified 130,948 underpayments worth £804.7 million since January 2021. A parallel HRP exercise has corrected a further 12,379 cases worth approximately £104 million.
The full new State Pension for 2026/27 is £230.25 per week. The maximum basic State Pension is £184.90 per week. Married women receiving less than 60% of the basic State Pension (approximately £110.94 per week) where their husband had a full NI record should investigate whether an underpayment has occurred.
Some groups receive automatic corrections. Others, particularly married women whose husbands turned 65 before 17 March 2008, and those who divorced after State Pension age, must contact the Pension Service proactively on 0800 731 0469.
For the HRP exercise, missing credits must first be added to the NI record via HMRC using form CF411, before the DWP can reassess the pension and pay arrears.
Where the husband turned 65 before 17 March 2008, backdating of arrears is generally limited to 12 months from the date of the claim. Delaying the claim costs arrears.
State Pension arrears payments are taxable income in the year of receipt. A large lump sum may trigger a Self Assessment obligation or an unexpected tax liability.
Next of kin and executors can claim arrears for deceased relatives using the dedicated GOV.UK service. No deadline is currently specified, but acting promptly is advisable.
FAQs
How do I know if I've been underpaid my State Pension?
The most common sign is receiving a basic State Pension of less than 60% of your husband's basic State Pension, particularly if you reached State Pension age before April 2016. You can check your NI record and State Pension entitlement through the GOV.UK website or by calling the Pension Service on 0800 731 0469.
Do I have to contact the DWP myself or will they contact me?
It depends on your category. Widows whose husbands died after 17 March 2008 and some married women will be contacted automatically. Married women whose husbands turned 65 before 17 March 2008, and those who divorced after State Pension age, generally need to contact the DWP themselves.
How far back will my arrears be backdated?
This depends on the category. Widows are typically backdated to the husband's date of death. For the proactive claim categories (husbands who turned 65 before March 2008), backdating is usually limited to 12 months from the date of the claim. Waiting costs you money in this group.
Is my State Pension arrears lump sum taxable?
Yes. State Pension income is taxable, and a large arrears payment received in a single year is added to that year's income. If the total income for the year exceeds your personal allowance (£12,570 for 2026/27), the excess is taxable. You may receive a PAYE code adjustment or, if you already file Self Assessment, the liability appears on your return.
Can I claim State Pension arrears for a relative who has died?
Yes. Next of kin and executors can make a claim on behalf of a deceased person. The GOV.UK guidance for requesting information about underpaid State Pension for someone who has died sets out the process and the information required.
What is HRP and how does it affect my State Pension?
Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) was a system between 1978 and 2010 that reduced the number of qualifying NI years needed for a full basic State Pension for parents and carers. If you claimed Child Benefit before May 2000 without providing your NI number, the HRP credits may be missing from your NI record. You can apply to add them through HMRC using form CF411.
My husband's pension was always higher than mine. Does this mean I'm definitely being underpaid?
Not necessarily. The 60% rule means you are entitled to at least 60% of your husband's basic State Pension if it is higher than your own. If you are receiving at least that amount, you are not underpaid on that basis. But there may be other reasons, such as missing HRP credits, that mean your own NI-based entitlement is lower than it should be independently.
What documents do I need when contacting the DWP about a potential underpayment?
At a minimum, you will need your NI number and date of birth, your husband's NI number and date of birth, date of marriage, and where relevant the date of his death or your divorce. Having any existing State Pension correspondence or award letters to hand will also help the Pension Service check your record more efficiently.
About the Author
Maz Zaheer, AFA, MAAT, MBA, is the CEO and Chief Accountant of MTA and Total Tax Accountants, two premier UK tax advisory firms. With over 15 years of expertise in UK taxation, Maz provides authoritative guidance to individuals, SMEs, and corporations on complex tax issues. As a Tax Accountant and an accomplished tax writer, he is renowned for breaking down intricate tax concepts into clear, accessible content. His insights equip UK taxpayers with the knowledge and confidence to manage their financial obligations effectively.
Disclaimer:
This article explains the general position for the 2026/27 tax year and is accurate at the date of publication. Tax outcomes depend on individual circumstances, and rules change. It is not advice for your situation. For guidance on your own position, speak to a qualified accountant or tax adviser. My Tax Accountant accepts no liability for action taken solely on the basis of this article.
