Phone gridlock has forced the Government to relax its deadline on a special state pension top-ups deal, as This is Money readers blast long delays and lost payments.
Using a new callback request option before 5 April means even if you don’t hear back from helpline staff before that date, you will still be able to buy missing years going as far back as 2006.
But after the offer finally runs out you can only fill gaps from the past six years – unless it’s extended again as happened twice during a phone meltdown two years ago.
If you make a callback request to beat the current deadline, the Government advises saving a screenshot of the confirmation message.
This is Money is receiving a stream of complaints from readers about long waits to find out vital information about buying top-ups – which can give a generous boost to your state pension if you fill the right gaps – and also after they hand over cash.
Jan Wright, pictured below, paid nearly £1,500 in December and was initially told her state pension would be raised in about eight weeks, but the Department for Work and Pensions later informed her it would take six months.
The 69-year-old retired civil servant told us: ‘This is unacceptable and apparently I receive no interest on the money I have paid and they have kept for months. If I owed the HMRC money I would be charged interest.’
Jan Wright: ‘It just doesn’t seem right that you pay your money and don’t get anything back’
We continue to hear stories about a mounting case backlog piling pressure on Government staff and causing lengthy delays.
– A 66-year-old reader was informed by HMRC it is currently taking two months to allocate top-up payments to National Insurance records.
That is the first stage, before cases are passed to the DWP which is responsible for reviewing and increasing payments.
– Below, we cover a case where HMRC gave botched advice to a reader, who paid too much for top-ups last June as result.
She has been chasing a £1,400 refund since HMRC admitted its error in August – then last month was told it would take a further 58 weeks to deal with it.
– The problems appear to extend beyond top-ups, because we also heard from a 71 year old who was awarded two ‘grandparent credits’ towards her state pension last May.
She got nowhere calling DWP staff to ask why her pension still hadn’t increased, until This is Money demanded an explanation and she was promised a £4,300 backpayment.
‘The delays which these readers have experienced are totally unacceptable,’ says Steve Webb, a former Pensions Minister who is This is Money’s retirement columnist.
‘It is particularly worrying that people can be left waiting for the best part of a year and find it impossible to get things moving.
‘I increasingly suspect that some applications are caught in a kind of ‘limbo’ where they never quite reach the top of anyone’s ‘to-do’ list.
Webb, who is now a partner at LCP, adds: ‘It is time that Ministers took a closer interest in operational matters like this and made sure that waiting times were reduced and that people could actually contact someone who knew what was going on in their case.’
We asked HMRC and DWP to tell us current average processing times to allocate top-ups payments to NI records, and to recalculate state pension payments or forecasts, but they gave us no information about this.
A Government spokesman responded: ‘There’s still time to make voluntary contributions before the 5 April 2025 deadline. We encourage people to act now.
‘Both HMRC and DWP will always prioritise resources as needed to manage spikes in demand, particularly for upcoming deadlines.
‘We apologise to those customers impacted by the level of service they received – where errors do occur we are committed to resolving them as soon as possible.’
‘I was absolutely shocked’
Jan Wright, 69, says it is unacceptable to take six months to increase state pension payments after she bought £1,500 in top-ups in December.
The former civil servant, who lives in Lancashire, says of her conversation with a DWP staff member about the backlog: ‘I was absolutely shocked. I asked if I could have interest. He sounded really surprised and said ‘I have never been asked that before’.
‘I am another victim. It just doesn’t seem right that you pay your money and don’t get anything back.’
After we took up her case, Ms Wright’s state pension was raised from around £193 to £205 and she received a £114 backpayment.
She responded: ‘All I can say is thank you so much for your intervention and help. I’m sure I would have been waiting a lot longer if it were not for you.’
Janice Mazi: HMRC botched her top-ups payment then failed to pay a promised refund
‘It’s a complete shambles’
Janice Mazi, who lives in Greece, handed over nearly £2,100 for state pension top ups last June after being misinformed about the cost by HMRC.
The 59-year-old saleswoman was promised a £1,400 refund plus £50 in compensation.
But she was still chasing this last month, and by then had involved her sister in the UK due to the cost and inconvenience of making phone calls from abroad.
Her sister was told by HMRC last month that it is currently taking 58 weeks to action queries, so Mrs Mazi could not expect a response and refund until this November.
At that point Mrs Mazi’s sister decided to contact This is Money, saying: ‘I don’t know in what universe this is acceptable, especially given that it was their incorrect information in the first place which led to the wrong NI payments being made.’
She told us this was ‘a tale of horror’ she wanted to make other people aware of and added: ‘Good luck to anyone else who has worked overseas trying to make NI payments for their state pension forecast. It’s a complete shambles.’
Mrs Mazi’s case was sorted out and she received an apology and compensation after we intervened.
She says: ‘Thank you for getting involved in my case. Without your help I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish this.’
Alison Lumb: Top-ups cash missing since spring 2024
‘I’ve made four phone calls about this’
Alison Lumb paid £180 for top ups in April last year, just a few weeks before she turned 66 and began drawing her state pension.
However, she discovered last summer that HMRC had wrongly entered her NI money as a payment on account towards her next tax bill.
The freelance artist, who lives in London, told us: ‘I have now made four phone calls about this and have just written to the Department of Work and Pensions.
‘In September HMRC finally transferred the payment for the NI over to the DWP, and according to the people on the phone at HMRC – who apologised on a couple of occasions – the pension should by now be correct.
‘I am told that there is an entry on the record of the change of circumstances team to do something about this but they evidently have not.
‘My circumstances have not changed but a few years ago my pension forecast suddenly appeared in my husband’s surname rather than mine, making me wonder if this software glitch – if it was that – has caused the problem. I did not change my surname on marriage, or at any point since.’
When we flagged her case, the DWP raised Mrs Lumb’s state pension from nearly £214 to £220 a week and said it would pay £281 in arrears.
She told us: ‘Thank you so much for taking this up and achieving this result. If you learn what went wrong I would be interested to hear.’
‘I have no idea where my £3,000 has gone’
Felice Torchia, 59, bought state pension top-ups last October but then heard nothing more.
The teacher, who lives in Finland, told us: ‘I have gone through all recommended channels and still don’t know if the money I sent is registered with them. No information, no receipts, nothing.
‘It’s been well over four months and there has been no update on the HMRC app. My pension page has remained unaltered. My NI contributions page has also remained static.
‘At this point, I have no idea where my £3,000 has gone! Is there any pressure you can put on them, or can you publish my complaint? I think if enough of us complain, something must happen.’
Once we raised his case, HMRC allocated the payment to Mr Torchia’s NI record and sent him a receipt. It says the two years he has paid for will automatically update on his online record and state pension forecast.
He told us: Your magic has worked, I checked my pension forecast on the HMRC app and they have now updated my info. Thank you so much for your help.’
Ethel McHugh and her husband Bill: She received two NI credits for caring for her grandchildren while her daughter worked
‘Have I slipped through some bureaucratic net’
Delays to revising state pension payments appear to go beyond top-up purchases, because we also heard from a reader who was due an increase after being awarded two ‘grandparent credits’ last spring.
These are available if you were looking after under-12s whose parents were working and didn’t need credits towards their own state pensions. You can apply retrospectively for years going back to 2013. Find out more about Specified Adult Childcare credits on Gov.uk.
Ethel McHugh, 71, received two credits last May for caring for her grandchildren while her daughter worked, but her state pension was not hiked to take account of them.
The retired cleaner, who lives in Tyne and Wear, told us: ‘I did write to the DWP in August of last year and then telephoned them in October after receiving a useless reply telling me to telephone or go online.
‘I chose to telephone as online was hopeless and eventually was connected with the correct department.
‘Eventually I was passed to an adviser who said she could see the change in my records reflecting the award but could not tell me when this would be included in my state pension payments. It’s now mid-February 2025 and still no word or sign of payment.’
She asked us: ‘In your experience is this a typical delay or could I have slipped through some bureaucratic net?’
When This is Money chased this up for her, Mrs McHugh received a rise in her state pension from around £171 to £183 a week, and she was promised arrears of £4,300.
She says: ‘Thank you so much for your intervention. I’m sure I would still be waiting if you had not helped.’
Top-ups money gone missing? Email: [email protected]
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