As a woman, can I claim underpaid state pension?

Due to a combination of errors related to automatic pension uplifts, incorrect record-keeping and outdated systems, underpayments are widespread especially amongst married, divorced and widowed women under the old state pension rules. 

Find out if you're eligible to claim your share.

Has my state pension been underpaid?

If you're a woman who reached state pension age (SPA) before April 2016, the answer will likely be yes. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) predicts that tens of thousands of married, divorced, and widowed women have had their state pension underpaid in error.

The issue was first brought to wider attention by pensions consultancy Lane, Clark & Peacock (LCP) in May 2020.

Since then, the DWP has reimbursed women, and an official repayment programme began on 11 January 2021. And there's a lot of money at stake.

Approximately £209 million out of an estimated £1.46 billion has been paid out so far by the DWP. 

Recent figures suggest if every woman disadvantaged by the change in pension age were to be paid out at the upper end of the range (£2,950), the government could pay as much as £7.7 billion in total. Data from 2024 notes that as many as 2.6 million women have been affected to date.

The huge bill is due to a combination of computer errors made by the DWP and a failure to increase some women's payments when their husbands reached SPA, died, or reached the age of 80.

Why might some women be owed more state pension?

Several different groups of women may have been underpaid for various reasons, although this applies only to women who reached state pension age before April 2016.

If you received your state pension after that date, you're on the new state pension system, so the underpayment issue doesn't apply.

One group of women who stand to gain are those who currently get, on average, a mere £1 per week under something known as the graduated retirement benefit (GRB), which ran under the former state pension system from 1961 to 1975.

Around 5,000 women in the UK receive GRB only but they could be due tens of thousands.

The missing state pension benefits also affect:

• Women who were married and reached SPA before April 2016 can claim the basic state pension. These women qualify for 60% of the basic state pension their husband gets at SPA.
• Women whose husbands reached 65 before March 2008. Up until this date, a married, divorced, or widowed woman would have had to claim to receive an enhanced pension. For women whose husbands reached SPA after March 2008, the DWP's computer systems should have automatically boosted their state pension payments to the 60% sum.

You would have needed to know you were affected in order to ask the DWP to start paying the state pension at the correct rate, plus claim backdated payments.

The DWP claims it wrote to those affected to alert them, but many say they never got a letter, leading to the current unclaimed state pension situation.

How much unpaid state pension could I be owed?

To work out what payment you might be able to claim, you'll need to look at the rate of married women's pension.

For the tax year 2024-25, the full basic state pension is £169.50 per week, and the rate for married women claiming 60% would be £101.70 per week. It was lower in previous years – £156.20 in 2023-24 – and goes up every April.

Based on this, you can calculate what you could be owed as follows:

• If you add up 52 weeks of married woman's pension from 2008/09 up until 2020/21, that gives you a total of £45,604 (although some women will be entitled to less).
• If your husband reached state pension age earlier than 2008, the payment could be larger.
• However, if your husband decided to defer his state pension, your pay-out will only be backdated to when he started drawing it, which could affect how much you'll get.

How do I check to see if I'm owed state pension?

Contact the Pension Service online or call on 0800 731 0469.

Make sure you have the following details to hand:

• Your name, date of birth, and NI number.
• Current annual basic state pension. You should be able to find this on your latest annual statement, but if not, give the total weekly or monthly amount.
• Your husband's name, date of birth (and date of death if this applies), and NI number.
• Your husband’s current basic state pension, or last known before he died.

You'll then be told whether you're receiving less than you're entitled to.

Underpaid state pension checklist: Who can claim?

LCP has identified six groups who might want to get in touch with DWP to get their state pension payments reviewed:

• Married women whose husband turned 65 before 17 March 2008: If you never claimed an uplift to the 60% rate, you could be missing out.
• Widows whose pension wasn’t increased when their husband died:  You could potentially receive a 100% basic state pension plus a percentage of your late husband's additional state pension.
• Widows whose pension is correct but may have been underpaid while their late husband was still alive: This is important if your late husband reached 65 after 17 March 2008.
• Over-80s who are getting less than £82.45 a week as a basic pension: This is provided they satisfy a basic residence test when they turn 80 as this is a non-contributory based pension.
• Widowers and heirs of married women: Where the woman has now died but was underpaid state pension during her life, particularly in cases where her husband turned 65 after 17 March 2008, as payments can be made to beneficiaries.
• Divorced women (particularly those who divorced post-retirement): You should check that you're benefitting from the contributions of your ex-husband.

Pensions are notoriously complicated, so understanding exactly who's entitled to what in light of these new revelations has added to the confusion.

Get expert financial advice

Women who reached state pension age before April 2016 in the UK may be eligible to claim compensation for underpaid state pensions due to changes and errors in the system.

If you qualify for underpaid state pension compensation, you may be able to increase your pension payments and strengthen your finances to support a more comfortable retirement.

Unbiased can connect you with a financial adviser who can help you determine whether or not you qualify for underpaid state pension compensation and assist in streamlining the claims process.

If you found this article useful, you might also find our articles exploring why women tend to be better investors than men and the world's richest women informative, too.