DWP confirms progress in State Pension underpayment corrections for millions of women

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has recently released updates on the progress of the State Pension Underpayments Legal Entitlements and Administrative Practice (LEAP) exercise, as well as the Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) corrections exercise.

The DWP has now finished the LEAP correction exercises for married women and civil partners (category BL), and those over 80 (category D), and confirmed that "progress remains on track for the 'widowed' cases to be completed by the end of 2024".

Between January 11, 2021 and September 30, 2024, the DWP identified 119,050 pensioners who were underpaid through the LEAP exercise, with back payments averaging £11,905. A similar exercise by HMRC found that between January 8, 2024 and the end of September, an additional 5,344 underpayments were identified through the HRP corrections exercise, with people owed State Pension underpayments of £7,859, on average.

Here's a summary of the progress on State Pension underpayments, who might be affected and how to check online or over the phone. In 2020, the DWP became aware of several individuals who had not had their State Pension increased, as required by law, automatically when this should have happened.

This led the Department to investigate the extent of the problem.

There are three main categories of State Pension underpayments:.

The State Pension LEAP is currently the Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP) largest underpayment correction exercise. It was established to identify potential State Pension underpayments affecting certain groups of people, reports the Daily Record.

Between January 2021 and September 2024, numerous cases were reviewed, arrears identified, and payments made. The DWP estimates that due to