A pensioner has received more than £77,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after financial advisers spotted a payment error.
One elderly Briton reached out for help with pension planning from Vizion Wealth Chartered Financial Planners which discovered a state pension payment hike had not been awarded.
The unnamed pensioner's wife retired in 2011 at 60 and is currently 73 but she claimed to have not qualified for the retirement benefit, despite having worked at her husband's company for a low wage.
Under previous DWP rules, married women over the retirement age were able to get an enhanced rate of the basic state pension once their partner reached the state pension age in situations when they were claiming only a small entitlement.
After a DWP rule change, which applied to any spouse hitting state pension age after March 17 2008, the payment hike to a married woman’s pension should have happened automatically, without the need for an additional claim to be made.
If this did not automatically happen, married women could put forward a claim for the uplift, which would be backdated to the date her partner reached the state pension age.
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In this situation of Vizion Wealth's client, the husband had retired in 2019 at 65 but his wife had not received any increase to her pension and was not aware she was eligible for it.
Teann Hatt, an independent financial adviser for the firm, wrote to the DWP on behalf of the couple with the department confirming the lack of a state pension boost was due to a "computer error".
As a result of this, the client's wife was awarded an amount of £130 per week which was backdated to when she initially retired.
This meant she awarded a massive lump sum of £77,393 as a result of the "error" carried out by the DWP.
Upon discovering this mistake, she was given the option by the department to boost her weekly state pension instead.
This would have seen her receive a £160 per week boost on top of her normal state pension of £130 per week, meaning she would have claimed £290 per week.
Speaking to FTA Adviser, Hatt described the discovery of this payment issue as a "big win" against the DWP.
He shared: "What past experience has taught me is to question women’s assumptions on what they may or may not be due from the state pension.
“If you see a low/no state pension in your fact finding do ask the follow up questions that may unearth a reason to contact the DWP.
“I find the most effective way is by writing a formal letter on behalf of the client to the DWP which forces it to investigate and answer according to the stated rules and procedures."
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According to the DWP, the department has received around 700,000 similar claims to the one brought forward by Vizion Wealth's client.
Speaking to FTAdvisor, a DWP spokesperson said: "There are a small number of cases where we are awaiting further information from the customer or a third party, and these will be cleared on receipt.
“Customers have up to two years to return information to us, so there may continue to be Cat BL and Cat D cases through to 2026.
"For missed conversion cases, the exercise will run through to late 2024.”
