State pensioners urged to ‘check’ payments after £470million lost to National Insurance ‘error’

Older Britons are missing out on around £470million in state pension entitlement.

Data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for the Financial Year End (FYE) 2024 is highlighting the sizable sum pensioners are being underpaid.

Over the 2023/24 financial year, state pension underpayments were worth £470million while overpayments stood at £170million.

The underpayment rate was down compared to the previous year, amounting to £580million for FYE 2023.

According to the DWP, these errors resulted from inaccurate National Insurance records which are used to determine how much someone gets from the state pension.

A worker needs to have 35 years worth of National Insurance contributions under their belt to claim the full new amount of the benefit.

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The DWP stated: “The main error within this category continued to be around the historic recording of Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP), administered by HMRC.

“HRP was a scheme existing from 1978 to 2010 to protect the state pension entitlement of people with domestic caring responsibilities.

“HRP reduced the number of qualifying years needed to get a full basic state pension. Some people have not had all eligible years of HRP recorded on their National Insurance records, and so have an incomplete record affecting their state pension entitlement.”

As well as this, experts are sounding the alarm over the lack of uptake of related-pension benefits among Britain’s elderly.

The latest DWP statistics revealed the unfulfilled eligibility rate for Pension Credit in FYE 2024 was 1.5 per cent which comes to around £80million up from 1.1 per cent or £50million for the year before.

Pension Credit is a benefit administered by the DWP for people of state pension age on low income with claimants potentially being eligible for up to £332.95 a week.

Helen Morrissey, the head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said it “pays to check” pension entitlement.

She explained: “We tend to assume benefits such as state pension will be paid out automatically at the correct rate, but we’re wrong.”

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Morrissey said the figures show there was a lot of people who didn’t get the money they were entitled to, adding: “For many it’s caused them to struggle financially – it pays to check.”

GB News has contacted the DWP for comment.

On the lack of uptake for Pension Credit, a DWP spokesperson said: “We want pensioners to receive all the support they are entitled to and we promote Pension Credit through public communications campaigns.

“We urge anyone who is unsure whether they or a loved one is entitled to Pension Credit to check their eligibility, including through our online Pension Credit calculator.”