State pensioners are urged to do a simple check to make sure they are not being underpaid. Former pensions minister Steve Webb, from LCP, has called on older Britons who receive less than £93.60 a week to check they are getting the right amount.

This is especially pertinent now as the DWP has just completed a project to check for errors for key groups of state pensioners. Mr Webb said: “Now that the DWP has finished checking for state pension errors among married women and the over 80s, anyone still on a low pension needs to take action. The ‘magic number’ is £93.60 per week.

“The vast majority of pensioners should be getting at least this amount. Anyone on less than this amount needs to contact the Pension Service to see if an error has been made and/or if they need to put in a further claim to get the higher rate. The new year is an ideal time to get this sorted once-and-for-all.”

How the rules apply depends on if a person is on the basic state pension or on the new state pension.

Basic state pension

For anyone who reached pension age before April 6, 2016, and who comes under the old state pension system, there are two groups of people who should be getting a pension of £93.60 per week or more:

• Anyone aged 80 or over who meets the basic residence test – They are entitled to a pension of £93.60 a week regardless of their record of National Insurance contributions, their income or their marital status
• Married women with a husband over state pension age – If the husband has a full basic state pension then the wife can claim a ‘married woman’s pension’ of £93 per week. The same also applies in the (less common) case where the husband has a low pension in his own right and the wife has a full basic pension. But where the husband is on less than a full basic pension (currently £156.20 per week) because of gaps in his record, his wife’s ‘married woman’s pension’ would be scaled down accordingly.

The pension system has sometimes failed to deliver the correct pension to these two groups, with the DWP undertaking a correction exercise since 2021 to fix these errors.

As of the end of October 2023, the DWP said it had corrected underpayments for around 37,000 married women and 27,000 over 80s, paying out arrears totalling more than £270million.

The DWP said it expects to complete all corrections for people in these two groups by the end of 2023.

For the over 80s, there are two scenarios:

• Anyone who was getting some rate of basic pension but short of the £93.60 standard rate should have been automatically upgraded to the £93.60 rate when they turned 80
• Anyone who was not getting any basic state pension when they turned 80 became entitled to the £93.60 rate but only if they put in a claim.

For married women, there are also two scenarios:

• For married women with a pension below the £93.60 rate, and whose husband reached pension age on or after March 17, 2008, their pension should have been increased automatically
• For married women with a pension below the £93.60 rate and whose husband reached pension age before March 17, 2008, an increase to £93.60 was available, but only in the event that they made a further state pension claim.

Individuals on less than £93.60 per week are encouraged to make sure that they have put in a claim for it if necessary.

New state pension

In most cases, anyone with 16 or more years of NI contributions or credits should get a state pension of £93 or more. This is because 16/35ths of the full rate of £203.85 is £93.18 per week.

A person on an amount lower than this may be missing NI credits for years at home with children (previously known as ‘Home Responsibilities Protection’).

The individual can claim the missing NI credits using the CF411 claim form. If added to someone’s record, this should increase their weekly pension to the correct amount and generate a payment of arrears.

Women who were paying the ‘married woman’s stamp’ 35 years before they reached state pension age qualify under a special concession and are entitled to a £93.60 pension.

But in some cases, the DWP has missed these cases and so individuals may want to challenge the department on this basis.

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