Millions of state pension records could soon be wiped, making it almost impossible for some families to claim back payments that were never received, a former minister has warned. Sir Steve Webb, who served as pensions minister and now works with consultants LCP, said the potential deletion of records could make it much harder to fix historic underpayments.
It comes after years of errors in state pension calculations, many of which affected married women, widows, and people over 80. In some cases, individuals died before their missing payments were identified. Sir Steve 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.”
He has now written to the permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Sir Peter Schofield, urging the Government to retain all relevant records until the ongoing correction process is complete.
Normally, pension records are deleted four years after a person dies. But this policy was paused in 2021 after thousands of errors were uncovered.
Sir Steve now fears that once the pause ends, records from as far back as 2017 could be erased.
In response to a Freedom of Information request, the DWP 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 estimates that around 500,000 people over state pension age die each year. He warned that deleting records from 2017 to 2020 could result in up to two million records being lost.
Among those affected are women who missed out on home responsibilities protection – a scheme designed to stop parents and carers losing pension entitlement.
DWP figures previously revealed that 43,000 out of an estimated 194,000 people affected by home responsibilities protection errors had already died without ever receiving the money they were owed. These underpayments are thought to total around £127 million.
Sir Steve 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.”
The warning follows a major correction effort launched by the DWP, which has so far reviewed over 900,000 records and paid out more than £900million in arrears.
A DWP spokesperson told PA: “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.”
The DWP added that its data retention policy remains under review and no final decision has been made on when or if deletions will resume.
Sir Steve is encouraging anyone who believes a loved one may have been underpaid to contact the DWP and have their record checked.
