State pension errors ‘could be virtually impossible to fix if records deleted’

Concerns that some state pension records could be deleted, making it “virtually impossible” to correct past errors in payments, have been raised by a former minister.

Multiple errors in state pension payments have been spotlighted in recent years and in some cases the people affected died before they could be put right.

Errors can potentially be fixed even after someone has died, with the money due going to heirs.

Sir Steve Webb, a former Liberal Democrat pensions minister, said he has written to the permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Sir Peter Schofield, asking him to ensure that records are retained for as long as they may be needed to clear up any outstanding state pension errors.

A freedom of information (FOI) response received by Sir Steve, who had requested information from the DWP, said that in 2021 the department put a temporary pause on deletions, as part of the major correction exercise on underpaid pensions to married women, widows and the over-80s.

Sir Steve said that as pension records are normally deleted four years after someone dies, there is a risk that records all the way back to 2017 could eventually be wiped, making it harder for families to receive justice.

The FOI reply said: “Application of the standard retention policy remains paused.

“Once the embargo is lifted, then we will look at deletion of records that are no longer required and re-apply the retention policy.”

Sir Steve, who is now a partner at consultants LCP (Lane Clark & Peacock) said that, with around 500,000 people over state pension age dying each year, a decision to now delete data for deaths in 2017 to 2020 inclusive, which were originally retained but are more than four years old, could potentially lead to as many as two million records being wiped.

He said some of these would include women who had missed out on “home responsibilities protection” – a scheme to help protect parents’ and carers’ state pension – whose families may be unable to have the situation corrected.

Sir Steve pointed to previously-released DWP figures indicating that out of an estimated 194,000 people affected by errors relating to home responsibilities protection, 43,000 died having never benefited from the protection.

Those who were deceased were underpaid an estimated £127 million.

Sir Steve urged people who believe there may have been errors to have their records checked.

He said: “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.

“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.”

The DWP’s position on data deletion is kept under review and no decision has been made to revert to 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 £900 million in arrears made.

“Where errors do occur we are committed to resolving them, which is why we have paused deleting state pension records.”