Mothers miss out on £1.3bn pension payout in tax error

TENS of thousands of women underpaid on their pensions face missing out on back pay because the taxman has thrown away their records, experts warned.

-  Sam Lister

The Government will launch a publicity drive to track down 210,000 parents and carers who have been denied a share of £1.3 billion.

But HMRC has admitted it does not know which pensioners are affected as the documents have been destroyed.

Sir Steve Webb, partner at LCP, who has campaigned on this issue for more than a decade, raised concerns that people will miss out.

The former pensions minister said: "It is truly shocking that so many people have been underpaid because of errors on their National Insurance record for time at home with children.

"It is even worse that tens of thousands of people, mostly mothers, died without ever receiving the correct state pension.

"It is vitally important that HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions are open and transparent about this whole process and that every effort is made to track down all those who may be entitled."

The DWP estimates errors on state pensions arising from a failure to record time at home with children on National Insurance records at around 210,000 cases.