DWP says my late mother got too little state pension, so who inherits this money? STEVE WEBB responds

Today, Steve Webb answers the 400th question from a This is Money reader. Watch for articles and events this week as we celebrate this milestone.

The DWP have told me that my late mother is entitled to five years’ worth of pension payments.

Is this part of my mother’s estate or will the payments be made directly to the survivors?

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Steve Webb responds: I assume you are referring here to the missing social security contributions that you can use to pay your deceased mother’s state pension.

When I first approached the government about gaps in national insurance data for thousands of mothers in the late 2000s, I didn’t expect that 15 years later they would still be working to fix the problem.

The letter you have received is part of a large-scale operation the government is conducting to identify people – mainly mothers – who may not have been entitled to protection from their state pension because of the time they spent at home with their children.

When the system was first introduced in 1978 it was called Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP). Since 2010 this protection has been provided through a system of national insurance credits.

The problem arose because before 2000 it was possible to apply for child benefit without having to enter a citizen service number.

The problem with this is that this information is used to put HRP or NI credits on a separate computer system. If the NI number is missing from the child benefit computer, the match can never be made.

Last year, the DWP admitted that nearly 200,000 people could be missing out on the scheme, with more than £1 billion set aside for potential payments of state pension arrears.

But by the end of March 2024, only 419 cases had been assessed, suggesting we are only at the beginning of a long journey.

Last week HMRC reported that it had now written to more than 250,000 people over pension age who may be eligible, and was now also writing to people under pension age.

Anyone who has received such a letter should respond to it so that their position can be ascertained.

What about those affected who have already died?

The DWP admits that of the 200,000 people they believe may eventually qualify, some 43,000 have sadly died without ever receiving the correct pension.

Now that you have been informed that your deceased mother has not received any NI benefits for a number of years, the DWP must reassess her State Pension and determine whether there are any outstanding arrears.

It is important to note that adding HRP does not always lead to an increase in AOW rights and therefore not always to payment arrears.

In some cases, the woman concerned had so few years of actual NI payment that, even with the addition of HRP, she still did not have enough to qualify for a pension of her own.

Some women reached retirement age after their husbands retired and received a pension based on his details straight away. Even then, minor changes in their own details may not affect their entitlement.

However, if we assume that there is a payment arrears, the DWP must find someone to whom it can pay the arrears.

In general, if the DWP has information about a surviving spouse, it will pay any outstanding amount to that person in one go.

If not, another ‘close relative’ must be located, for example a living son or daughter.

In some cases the deceased has specified in their will that their ‘worldly goods’ should go to someone else. However, the DWP does not have access to people’s wills and I am sure they do not want to get involved in any disputes about who is entitled to them.

For this reason, the estate is simply paid out to the ‘survivors’, regardless of what is stated in the will.

If there are multiple claims, the payment can be split. Each party wishing to make a claim must then complete a BR330 or SPL25D form.

Normally, one of these documents is sent with the letter informing the family of possible payment arrears.

One final point that may be relevant to other readers is that if you receive a letter about a loved one who is no longer with us, you can still complete the HRP application form posthumously.

It works in that you complete the form on behalf of the deceased, but then sign it yourself and explain why you are doing this.

You should then be able to submit a claim for any HRP due and receive any arrears in due course.