Webb asks DWP to wait with deleting state pension records
Image: Juan Pablo Serrano/Pexels
Pardon the Interruption
This article is just an example of the content available to mallowstreet members.
On average over 150 pieces of new content are published from across the industry per month on mallowstreet. Members get access to the latest developments, industry views and a range of in-depth research.
All the content on mallowstreet is accredited for CPD by the PMI and is available to trustees for free.
Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb has written to the Department for Work and Pensions asking it to retain state pension records for as long as they may be needed to correct errors relating to Home Responsibilities Protection, following a Freedom of Information request. The DWP is keeping its position on data deletion under review and no decision on resuming deletions has been made.
Home Responsibilities Protection provided national insurance credits to homemakers and carers, mostly women, between 1978 and 2010. It was paid automatically to those claiming child benefit and carers receiving income support, but other carers, foster carers and partners of those who claimed child benefit would have had to apply to receive it.
Advisory firm LCP, where Sir Steve works now, says of an estimated 194,000 people affected by errors around ‘home responsibilities protection’, 43,000 have already died without ever receiving their share of an estimated total of £127m – on average about £2,950 per person. Those still alive are entitled to about £1bn in arrears.
Underpaid state pension can be claimed by the families of deceased people, but the DWP would normally delete state pension records after four years. The department paused deletions in 2021 while it was conducting a separate state pension underpayment correction – affecting married women, widows and over-80s – but this exercise is complete and deletion may resume if the temporary pause is lifted, according to Sir Steve.
He has now written to the permanent secretary at the DWP, Sir Peter Schofield, urging him to keep records for as long as they may be needed to correct state pension errors.
“I often hear from people who are trying to sort out errors in the state pension of loved ones who are no longer with us but are told nothing can be done because the records have been destroyed,” the LCP partner said.
“Whilst we cannot get back the records that have already been deleted, it is essential that DWP does not now delete millions more records, especially given the live process of trying to fix errors around Home Responsibilities Protection. The least we can do for people who were never paid the right pension is to do all we can to make sure that at least their families get the money they missed out on,” he added.
No decision has been made by the DWP to revert to its business as usual process.
A DWP spokesperson said:“We are committed to ensuring pensioners get the financial support they deserve and have so far reviewed over 900,000 customer records, with awards totalling over £900m in arrears made. Where errors do occur, we are committed to resolving them, which is why we have paused deleting State Pension records.”
