DWP owes some UK households a whopping £12,000 – check if you are eligible

Many women continued to receive cash through the older state pension system when they were entitled to more via the new state pension, it has been warned by Steve Webb.

Sir Steve Webb, a pensions commentator, said the pay-outs are “shocking”. He said: “It is shocking that the Government knows that hundreds of thousands of older married women could be on a higher pension but has done nothing to make them aware in the fifteen years or more since their husband retired.

“I would encourage any married woman with a husband over 80 and who has a basic pension under £85 per week to check if she may be entitled to a higher pension.”

The full list of those affected the underpayments have been broken down into three categories. Married (Cat BL) pensions are paid when a person has no basic or additional pension but can make a state pension claim through their spouse or civil partner’s National Insurance contribution.

It is understood that married women whose partners turned 65 before March 17, 2008, could have claimed for an uplift. Widowed Brits will have been affected if their pension was not uplifted to account for amounts inherited from their partner.

Some widows could also have been underpaid while their partner was still alive. The Over-80s (category D) affects those who didn’t receive a state pension uplift that they should have received from the age of 80.

This comes amid growing criticism over the annual one-off tax-free £10 DWP Christmas payment to people who get certain benefits, such as Pension Credit. Charities, such as Disability Rights UK, have called the bonus sum “insulting” while the Bank of England’s inflation calculator suggests that the £10 offered in 1972 would be worth as much as £163 now – but the amount has not changed for 51 years.