Find the 5000: Could someone you know be eligible for a ‘lottery-winning’ pension back payment?

If you know a woman who reached state pension age before April 2016, and whose husband turned 65 before 17 March 2008 (so would be aged 78 or older now), it’s worth them contacting the pensions service to ask that their pension entitlement be reviewed. This could also apply to women who’ve got divorced since they retired and haven’t had their pensions reviewed since. In some cases this could also apply to the heirs of women who were underpaid state pensions but have since died. All these groups could be eligible for back payments from the DWP; you can find more explanations (it’s a bit complicated, but worth persevering with) here.

We reckon MNers and GNers can help to find these women so that they can get access to their pensions.

If you know women fitting the above criteria who are receiving pensions payments of around £1 per week – the so-called ‘graduated-only payments’, which used to be known as SERPs – they could be due a very big payout (of around £45,000).

We reckon MNers and GNers can help to find these women so that they can get access to their pensions. If you know a woman who you think might fit the description above, they can:

• Call 0800 731 0469 (press option four, then option two) (see other contact details on the Pension Service website);

• or use this calculator set up by legal firm Lane Clark & Peacock.

Many thanks for Mumsnet user Viques for drawing our attention to this one – we’d love to hear how you get on and whether any MNers’ relatives and friends benefit from the advice, so please let us know what happens on the Talk thread.

Last updated: 13 April 2021