Martin Lewis urges women on Basic State Pension to check for back payments of up to £12,500

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Martin Lewis is urging hundreds of thousands of older women to check if they have been underpaid their State Pension and due thousands of pounds in arrears from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

In a special pensions edition of the weekly MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE.com) Newsletter, the consumer champion breaks down the specific groups of women who may be owed “big bucks” as a result of historical errors.

Martin explained that married or divorced women, aged 70 and over on the Basic State Pension, or those who took time off to look after their children, may be affected and due back payments.

He also said that while most errors are being corrected automatically, some people may need to claim.The latest figures from the DWP show that 97,016 people over State Pension age - mostly women - have already received payments averaging £2,192, £5,713 and £12,486, depending on their pension category and their own individual circumstances.Writing in the MSE.com newsletter, Martin said: “100,000s of married or now divorced / widowed women on the 'old' State Pension (those who hit state pension age before 6 April 2016) are due big bucks due to pension system errors, mainly as they didn't get the cut of their husbands' pensions due to them.”The financial guru added that more than 200,000 women could be missing out on higher State Pension payments.As already stated, most errors will be corrected automatically and any money owed paid directly by DWP.