Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on rectifying errors in state pensions.

The overall rate of State Pension underpayment due to official error remains low as a proportion of expenditure (0.5% in 2022/2023). Where errors do occur, we are committed to fixing them as quickly as possible.

The Department of Work and Pensions is currently progressing Legal Entitlement and Administrative Practice (LEAP) exercises to rectify errors in the State Pensions caseload. Our priority is to ensure that everyone receives the State Pension payments to which they are entitled.

The latest update on the progress activity for the State Pension LEAP activity was published on 30 November and shows that between 11 January 2021 and 31 October 2023:

o 593,964 cases were reviewed

o 82,323 underpayments were identified

o £497 million was paid in arrears.

DWP is on track to complete the exercise for Category BL and Category D cases by the end of 2023.

The Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) corrections activity started in Autumn 2023 with HMRC sending letters to potentially affected customers, who are invited to make a claim for missing HRP. Once a customer’s national insurance record has been corrected, DWP will process any state pension changes to ensure ongoing payments are correct and any arrears are paid as quickly as possible. Updates on progress will be communicated as the exercise progresses.