Recommendation 19

We asked DWP how much people could receive in back payments of State Pension. DWP told us it assumes an average back payment of £5,000 for people above State Pension age and £3,000 for the next-of-kin of those who are deceased. DWP’s accounts report that overall 210,000 pensioners may have been underpaid some £1.3 billion. Adjusting for take-up, DWP currently expects to pay £1.0 billion to around 187,000 people. DWP warned us that there was a significant amount of uncertainty around these estimates. The possible range of underpayment that DWP will need to pay out was estimated by DWP in its 2022–23 accounts is between £310 million and £1.5 billion.40 We asked DWP what proportion of the affected pensioners will be women and what level of overlap there might be between the HRP issue and previous State Pension underpayments. DWP admitted it did not know because this is an “incredibly complicated” exercise but that it will have to take that into account, along with any interactions with other benefits.41