Buried Treasure?

I've been speaking today on BBC Radio 4's Moneybox programme - which you can hear here - about pensions. I had a written parliamentary answer that indicated that up to half a million women were just a year or two short on their National Insurance records and as a result get absolutely no basic state pension in their own right at all. I'm highlighting the fact that there is a scheme that allows them to pay their extra years, get a boost to their pension backdated to when they were sixty, and possibly simply get a cheque from the Government for the difference!

Some of these women had a letter about this some years ago but may not have understood it, whilst others were probably never notified at all. As well as alerting people to claim - eg by calling the HMRC National Insurance Deficiency Helpline: 0845 915 5996 (Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm and Saturday 8am - 4pm) - I will be having a meeting with the pensions minister later this month to urge the Government to contact people proactively. For more details on this issue, see my website.

This is how the Daily Mail covered it today.