Millions of state pension records ‘set to be deleted’ – putting thousands at risk of never getting their money

Millions of old state pension records are set to be deleted – a move which would make it ‘virtually impossible’ to correct past errors in state pension payments, a former pensions minister has warned.

There are thought to be tens of thousands of people affected by historic state pension errors.

The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) has admitted to multiple errors in state pension payments in recent years, and in some cases the people affected had died before things could be put right.

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An estimated £1 billion in ‘home responsibilities protection’ (HRP) for state pensions was underpaid to people between 1978 and 2010, for example, a mistake primarily affecting women who took time off work to care for children or disabled adults.

Out of an estimated 194,000 people, mostly women, affected by errors relating to home responsibilities protection, 43,000 died having never benefited from HRP. These deceased women were underpaid an estimated £127 million. HRP was replaced by National Insurance credits in 2010.

Errors can be fixed even after someone has died, with the money due being paid to the heirs. But once DWP pension records have been deleted this becomes almost impossible, unless the family have very detailed historic records about the person who died.

State pension errors

A new Freedom of Information request by Steve Webb, former pensions minister and now a partner at consultancy LCP, says there is now a risk millions of historic state pension records will be deleted, leaving people who are owed money due to errors nowhere to turn to get justice.

Normally, pension records are deleted by the DWP four years after someone dies. This practice was put on hold in 2021 while the Department investigated another batch of state pension errors (affecting married women, widows and the over 80s).

With that correction exercise now complete, there is a risk records all the way back to 2017 will now be wiped, making it impossible for families to get justice for their late loved one.

Webb, who has been investigating the issue of state pension payment errors, found in his FOI that while the embargo on deletions is currently still in place, there is no guarantee that will remain the case.

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

‘Essential no more records are deleted’

With roughly 500,000 people over state pension age dying each year, deleting data for deaths in 2017 to 2020 inclusive (which were originally retained but are more than four years old), would result in roughly 2 million records being deleted.

Some of these would include women who missed out on HRP and whose family could no longer get things put right, Webb said.

He has written to the Permanent Secretary at the DWP, Sir Peter Schofield, asking him to ensure that these records are retained for as long as they may be needed to clear up any outstanding state pension errors.

Webb 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.”

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.”