I spent £2,000 to get a higher state pension, and what do I have six months later? Nothing!

A saver whose £2,000 of supplementary state pension money disappeared into state coffers for six months says she was driven to despair when she tried to track it down.

‘You’re just facing a monolith that you’re fighting against,’ says Janet Harrison, 67, of many stressful hours on the phone with HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions.

The former Dorset civil servant paid for a four-year increase to her state pension record last January, worth an extra £20 a week.

But as we exclusively revealed at the time, the state pension supplement system descended into chaos early this year, when savers blocked the phone line before a tight deadline — eventually forcing the government to extend it twice.

People now have until April 5, 2025 to take advantage of a special allowance that allows them to supplement or buy additional AOW waiting years from 2006/2007, instead of just the usual six years.

Savers can still do this at the current rates of up to £824 for each year, and less for a gap year.

Ms Harrison first contacted the DWP and HMRC to ask if it was worth buying top-ups in June 2022, saying she was “sent from pillar to post”, but ultimately in received a letter in January confirming the years that would increase her state pension.

She immediately paid £1,933, but almost six months later turned to This is Money for help in finding out what had happened to her money.

She told us, “No word since then, no receipt for money or increase in pension. I tried to speak to DWP who said to speak to HMRC. Spent hours on the phone with HMRC trying to discuss, but to no avail.’

Following the above experiences, Ms Harrison says she tried calling the DWP again in July and was again referred to HMRC.

She was the first to call in the morning and was ready after 20 minutes, but was told by an HMRC employee that her payment had not yet been credited.

She told This is Money, “Help. I despair. Will my pension ever be increased? Do they hope that I die in the meantime? Will it be retroactive? My first contact was June 2022. I just want this resolved.”

Ms Harrison, who says she’s worked since she was 18 and still has a part-time job in a supermarket, adds: ‘You get so stressed when you ring the phone.

‘It’s a labyrinthine system and I consider myself quite intelligent. It’s so frustrating. By the time you get through it, you may have passed many times.”

‘They’ve had almost £2,000 of my money for six months and what do I have to show for it? Nothing.

“If you get a receipt for the money, that would be something. If you don’t hear anything disturbing.

“I was just trying to do the right thing and increase my pension a bit, with the cost of living crisis.”

After we reported Ms Harrison’s case to HMRC and the DWP, her additions have been processed and she will receive an increase in state pension from around £23 a week to £185, plus arrears of £625.

An HMRC spokesperson says: ‘We have written to Ms Harrison to apologize and let her know that her payments have been allocated to her National Insurance record. This was an isolated case: the vast majority of voluntary contributions paid had their data updated within a few days.

“The government has extended the deadline to April 5, 2025 to give taxpayers more time to fill gaps in their record and to help increase the amount they receive in state pension.”

We asked for specific details about the current delays in processing top-ups and phone waiting times and were told that HMRC has additional staff answering calls and dealing with correspondence regarding voluntary state pension contributions.

The vast majority of people who pay voluntary contributions by wire transfer get their NI records updated within days, but payments by check can take up to eight weeks, while more complex cases requiring manual processing by specialist caseworkers take longer to process. unload.

The DWP has not responded to our request for updated information on the time scale for recalculation of state pension benefits, which occurs after additional payments are processed by HMRC.

We also asked about phone hold times, including how many calls per month are blocked from getting into the phone queue at the Future Pension Centre.

The latest issue caused a lot of complaints from This is Money readers before the top-up deadline was extended for a second time in June.

Former Pensions Minister Steve Webb, now a columnist for This is Money’s pensions, says: ‘If someone decides to put hundreds or thousands of pounds of their hard-earned savings aside to increase their state pension, they don’t expect that money to disappear into a black hole.

“It’s incredibly frustrating to see the money disappear from your bank account and then hear nothing, or be promised a call back or letters that never arrive.”

Mr. Webb, partner at pension consultant LCP added: ‘It is time that extra staff were deployed to process these extra benefits, so that people receive the AOW benefit they paid for without delay and without hours. answer.’

After your purchase, do you have difficulty buying supplements or getting an increase in the state pension? Tell us at: pensionquestions@thisismoney.co.uk. You can also contact your representative and ask him to intervene on your behalf.