The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is handing out £8,300 payouts to women aged between 60 and 70 due to a major error. A round £104million in arrears have been paid out, with an average payment of £8,377.

This is only around one-tenth of the original £1.1billion estimate set aside by the DWP last year, though. A significant issue has emerged concerning underpaid state pensions, primarily affecting women. The Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) scheme, active from 1978 to 2010, was designed to protect parents—especially mothers—who took time off work to care for children.

However, errors in recording National Insurance numbers during child benefit claims before May 2000 led to missing HRP credits. This oversight has resulted in underpayments estimated between £520 million an

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