Divorced women are being urged to make sure their state pension is correct after one woman received a back payment of more than £60,000 having previously assumed she was not entitled to a pension.
The issue affects women who come under the ‘old’ state pension system, which is those who were born before 6th April 1953. There are two groups who may be missing out:
- Women who were divorced at point of retirement – these women can get a state pension based on the contributions of their ex-husband, even if they have a poor contribution record of their own
- Women who divorced post retirement but have never notified DWP; these women can have their basic state pension reassessed using their ex husband’s contributions, but this only happens when they notify DWP of their ‘change of circumstances’
Under the old state pension system, the ‘basic’ state pension (currently worth up to £137.60 per week) is normally based on an individual’s own record of NI contributions. But for divorced women the rules are different.
Those who are divorced when they reach pension age can ask DWP to ‘substitute’ the NI record of their ex-husband up to the date of the divorce. Those who divorce later in life are therefore particularly likely to benefit as they can substitute their ex-husband’s record for a longer period of time.
If they put in a claim and tick ‘divorced’ on the state pension claim form this should in principle happen automatically. But this depends on them making a claim in the first place. A woman who never claimed at pension age can claim now and have her pension backdated to state pension age.
Those who are married when they retire but then divorce post-retirement can also ask to have the NI record of their ex-husband ‘substituted’ for their own. But because DWP is not notified of divorces, any pension increase is not backdated, which means such women should notify DWP as soon as possible.
One woman who has benefited from these rules is Mrs Yvonne Hooper (pictured), aged 77, born in London and currently living in Spain. Mrs Hooper was widowed as a young woman and was twice divorced by the time she reached pension age at 60 in 2004, though she has since remarried. She thought she would not be entitled to a state pension so did not claim. After contacting LCP partner Steve Webb, who has been campaigning on underpaid state pensions, she submitted a claim and has now been awarded a full basic state pension and backpayments of more than £60,000.
Steve Webb said: “I would urge any woman who was divorced when she reached pension age, or who has divorced since retiring, to make sure she has claimed her pension and notified DWP of her divorce. I’m delighted that Mrs Hooper has received this large windfall, but I have no doubt that there are thousands more divorced women who are not getting what they are due. It is vital that they claim a pension if they have not done so and that they notify DWP if they divorce in retirement”.
