Unclaimed State Pension.

Hi,

My father is 69 years old and has never claimed his state pension. This is not because he didn't need the money, it's because he thought as he had a works pension he was not entitled to a state pension. My father has now received a lump sum for his unclaimed pension from January 2006 but has been told that any unclaimed pension previous to that date will be paid in additional increments to his weekly pension. Unfortunately, my dad has terminal cancer and has a few months left at best. so he is unlikely to see much of his unclaimed pension. I've been told by the DWP that previous to the 1st of April 2005 lump sums were not paid, only increments. Does this mean my father will lose most of his state pension? Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

CK.

Reply to
CK
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I fear so. You can *opt* to defer your pension, and ultimately receive an enhanced pension instead. Maybe if you simply don't claim it you are deemed to have done that? Having said that, I think that this option is fairly recent and may not have existed 4 years ago.

The DWP is supposed to write to you ar least 3 months before you reach retirement age, reminding you of the need to claim. If your father can

*prove* that he received no such letter, he may just have a case - but that would be very difficult to prove unless it was part of a wider known problem with the DWP (or whatever they were called at the time).
Reply to
Roger Mills

The new rules started in April 2005 and allow a lump sum for deferral after that darte. As you say, for earlier deferral, this only resulted in an increased pension. In the sad case of the OP's father, this will work out very badly, I am afraid.

There's a 100 page booklet (reference SPD1) on pension deferral available from The Pension Service on 0845 7 31 32 33.

Reply to
GB

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