HMRC pension errors: What happened? How to tell if you're affected
PENSION payment errors by the HMRC dating back over four decades could mean that some pensioners could see a cut in their yearly income, while others receive a boost. How can you tell if you’ve been affected?
What the 2015 pensions shake up offers holders
Decades worth of data errors have been uncovered by the HMRC as it undergoes a major pension data clean-up.
Tens of thousands of pensioners could undergo major changes in their finances as a result, with some losing up to 50 percent of their salary.
Others could see a significant boost to their income, with some who have not received the correct amount being given backpay and a future raise.
The errors were discovered during a data cleanup starting in 2014, the largest involving retirement benefits in UK history.
Missed payments to pensioners apparently range from £50 per year to £10,000 over the course of a lifetime.
The affected accounts are both public and private sector, schemes, which hold records of millions of people.
The Government have said that they are working to correct the blunders.
A Government spokesman said: “The reconciliation exercise has been underway for some time. Most queries submitted as part of the exercise do not have an impact on the amount of an individual’s state pension.”
“However where queries do result in changes, we are notified by HMRC, and where the pension is in payment, review the award and notify the individual of the change.
“HMRC and pension scheme administrators determine whether the GMP figures are correct.
“However, where overpayments of State Pension do occur due to incorrect GMP figures, individuals will not be expected to repay any overpayments.”
It is estimated that £22million of overpayments hit 10,000 people last year alone in the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Some pensioners on the scheme were asked to repay overpayments to their account, prompting the Cabinet Office to call for investigation.
Tory peer and former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann told the Telegraph that it was “almost beyond belief that thousands of pensioners can suddenly be told they will have their income cut because of mistakes by those supposed to be in charge of paying them the right amount.
“It seems utterly wrong to make pensions suffer for the mistakes of others.
“Confidence in pensions is so important and if people can’t even trust the figures they are told by the experts are right, then it damages the whole system.”
How to check if you are affected
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have said they are in the process of notifying people who have been affected.
If you are worried and want to contact the department yourself, you can do so via their government website here.
Full new state pension for those retiring from April 2016 is set at £164.35 per week.