Thousands of pensioners are at risk of missing out on vital state pension cash due to a blunder by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), warns former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb.
The ex-Liberal Democrats heavyweight has voiced his concern that errors by HMRC in tracking National Insurance (NI) credits for more than 100,000 people, most of whom are women, could mean swathes of elderly individuals will miss receiving their rightful pension sums.
Law firm partner Webb said a HMRC campaign to track down more than 180,000 who have missed out on national insurance (NI) credits for time raising children is set to fail. The DWP says an estimated 187,000 pensioners have been underpaid in a NI mix-up.
HMRC has so far issued more than 250,000 letters to people over pension age with no Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) on their record, encouraging them to put in a claim. Sir Steve, now a partner at pension consultancy firm LCP, said: “Whilst I understand the desire of Government departments to cut costs, it is completely inappropriate to write letters to hundreds of thousands of pensioners which suggest that the only way to apply is online.
“At the very least, the letters should give recipients a phone number to call or include a paper form for those who are not online.”
He added: “Unless HMRC addresses this issue it is highly likely that tens of thousands of older pensioners may continue to miss out on money which is rightfully theirs.” Anyone who is affected could be owed an average of £5,000 each, with the DWP expecting to pay out more than £1billion in arrears.
