DWP update as people are due £5,000 back payments

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Minister Paul Maynard has issued an update on when people owed around £5,000 in back payments can expect to receive their cash.

Around 210,000 older people, mostly women, are set to receive a share of underpayments totalling £1.3 billion due to errors that saw Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) missing from their National Insurance (NI) records. The DWP previously said that those closest to the State Pension age in their 60's and 70s will get their letters first.

Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle this week asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average value was of an underpayment of the State Pension due to incorrectly updated National Insurance records in the 2022-23 financial year.

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Paul Maynard MP said: "the "exercise to correct National Insurance records for those individuals impacted by errors in their HRP record is underway". He added: "The HRP corrections exercise started with HMRC dispatching letters in late 2023. Cases subsequently notified from HMRC started being processed in DWP in early 2024.

"In the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023, the central estimate value of an underpayment was £5,000 for alive cases above state pension age and £3,000 for deceased cases.

"We intend to publish an update on the exercise in this year’s Annual Report and Accounts."

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