UK. MPs criticise ‘shameful’ underpaying of state pensions
The long-term underpayment of thousands of state pensioners, mainly widows, divorcees and women who rely on their husband’s pension contributions for some of their pension, is a “shameful shambles”, according to the public spending watchdog.
About 134,000 people have had their state pension underpaid to the tune of £1bn, according to a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimate.
The vast majority of those affected are women who should have had their pension topped up when their husband retired even if they did not build up enough national insurance contributions in their own right.
An investigation from the National Audit Office (NAO) last year found out that nearly 40,000 pensioners may have died without knowing they were owed thousands of pounds.
Dame Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said: “Departments that make errors through maladministration have a duty to put those it wronged back in the position they should have been, without the error.
“In reality DWP can never make up what people have actually lost, over decades, and in many cases it’s not even trying. An unknown number of pensioners died without ever getting their due and there is no current plan to pay back their estates.”
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