Guardian article re: women who may be eligible to claim underpaid state pension

[IlonaM]

A very good article in today's Guardian regarding potential underpayments of state pension to women who reached state-pension age before 6 April 2016, who fall under the older-style pension system, which enabled women with a reduced national insurance contributions record to claim a proportion of their husband?s state pension: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/feb/06/woman-state-pension-underpaid

See also a free tool to check eligibility: https://www.lcp.uk.com/is-your-state-pension-being-underpaid/

From Guardian article:

'Are you able to claim?

You may be due a payout and increased state pension if you fall into the following scenarios:

You are a married woman who reached state pension age before April 2016 with a state pension that is less than 60% of your husband?s basic state pension (currently ?80.45, based on the 2020-21 ?134.25 a week).

You are a married woman whose husband turned 65 before 17 March 2008 but you did not realise you should get an increase in state pension, and so never claimed.

You are a widow whose pension was not increased when your husband died (you can potentially receive a full basic state pension, plus a percentage of your late husband?s additional state pension).

You are a widow and may have been underpaid while your husband was alive or you did not receive an increase when your husband died, based on his contributions.

You are a woman over 80 in receipt of a basic pension of less than ?80.45. Whatever your marital status, check your entitlement. You may be entitled to a non-contributory state pension that is not currently based on your national insurance contributions record.

You are a divorced woman ? particularly if you divorced post retirement ? who is receiving a small pension and may benefit from your ex-husband?s NICs record.

You can raise a claim if you believe you may have been underpaid. You can check if you are owed any state pension by contacting the Pension Service, part of the Department for Work and Pensions, on 0800 731 0469. It has a team working on claims for state pension underpayments.

Advertisement

How far you can backdate claims depends on whether your husband reached 65 before 17 March 2008, in which case you can backdate 12 months. However, if he reached the state pension age after this date, when the uplift should have been automatic, you are eligible to claim the full amount you have been underpaid back to when your husband retired.'