Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to tackle under-payment errors in state pensions.

Our priority is to ensure everyone receives the financial support to which they are entitled. Where errors do occur, we are committed to fixing them as quickly as possible.

The Department for Work and Pensions became aware of issues with State Pension underpayments in 2020 and took immediate action to investigate the extent of the problem, which dates back many years across successive Governments. The DWP formally commenced a Legal Entitlements and Administrative Practices (LEAP) exercise on 11 January 2021.

Over 1,300 staff have been recruited or redeployed to the ongoing State Pension underpayment LEAP exercise. Delivery is backloaded and case reviews have significantly increased since November 2022. The latest data shows we have reviewed an average of over 30,000 cases per month between November 2022 and March 2023, compared to an average of 5,000 per month over the first 22 months of the exercise.

Based on our current trajectory, the Department expects to complete the exercise for Category BL and Category D cases by the end of 2023. For missed conversion cases, the exercise could run through to late 2024.

Other State Pension underpayment errors were identified through DWP’s fraud and error sampling which related to historic non-recording of Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) on a claimant’s National Insurance record.

In September, HMRC will begin contacting people potentially affected by missing HRP. This will be supported by a communications campaign to increase public awareness and encourage people to see if they are affected. DWP will then revise the State Pension awards of people who may have been affected. We will also shortly be launching a new online tool to help people check whether they need to claim.