The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had repaid £736m to individuals impacted by historical state pension underpayments as of 30 September 2024, having identified 119,050 underpayments.

The problems affected married women whose husbands reached pensionable age before 2008, as well as widows and those over 80, who were unknowingly entitled to an 'enhanced pension' that would have boosted their payments by up to 60 per cent.

The latest update on the issue revealed that DWP had reviewed 857,050 cases between 11 January 2021 and 30 September 2024, identifying a total of 119,050 underpayments.

In particular, a total of £250.6m had been repaid to the 45,907 cases involving married women, with an average arrears amount of £5,591, while a total of £417.2m had been paid in relation to the 39,706 widowed cases, with an average £11,905 payment.

In addition to this, £68.2m was repaid in relation to 33,437 cases involving over 80s, with an average payment of £2,202.

The government also provided an update on work to address Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) errors.

According to the update, the DWP identified 5,344 underpayments between 8 January 2024 and 30 September 2024, who were owed total arrears of around £42m.

The error around HRP arose because many Child Benefit claim forms submitted before 2000 did not include a National Insurance number and this means that the relevant HRP was not carried across from the Child Benefit computer to the National Insurance computer.

However, industry experts previously raised concerns over the pace of the government's progress addressing these issues, particularly work to address HRP errors, which is set to continue until 2027/28.

---