Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have identified why automatic pension uplifts were not applied since 2008 to women's State Pension when their husbands reached State Pension Age; and what steps they have taken to ensure that future pension payments are subject to checks.

As set out in the written statement of 4^th March 2021, laid in both Houses, the Department IT systems produce an electronic prompt to consider if an individual’s State Pension amount should be increased. The prompt requires Department Staff to take further manual action and, in some cases, this did not take place.

The Department is undertaking additional quality assurance checks to ensure that State Pension payments are accurate.