DWP paying out £11,725 correction payments with some already landing in accounts Thousands of women have been embroiled in a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) state pension scandal, having been underpaid for years. DWP paying out £11,725 correction payments with some already landing in accounts Three types of state pensioner are getting lump sum backpayments of up to £11,725. Thousands of women have been embroiled in a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) state pension scandal, having been underpaid for years. The DWP has identified 130,948 pensioners who had been underpaid their state pension due to a fault in the system. These pensioners received substantial back payments, averaging as much as £11,725 in some cases. ‌ Those affected by the errors include married women who didn’t receive a pension increase when their husband retired, individuals whose pensions weren’t reassessed after their spouse died, and over-80s who missed out on automatic entitlement boosts. Article continues below READ MORE UK faces 'five day' mini-heatwave next week as BBC Weather issues warning Three main categories of women affected by state pension errors are Married women (Category BL) – whose pensions were not automatically increased when their husbands retired - and Widowed women – whose pensions were not reassessed after their partner’s death. ‌ Women over 80 (Category D) – who did not receive the automatic uplift they were entitled to - complete the list. On average, married women affected by the error have received £5,553 in back payments. Widowed women received the highest arrears, with an average payout of £11,725. Women over 80 were paid an average of £2,203 in missed state pension entitlements. Steve Webb, LCP partner and former Liberal Democrats minister, said: "We have become so used to stories about state pension errors that it is easy to become dulled to the scale of what went wrong. "It now looks as though the total amount underpaid will pass through the £1bn mark this year with over 170,000 people having lost out. The vast majority of those who lost were women, some of whom were underpaid for decades or even went to their grave never paid the right state pension. Article continues below "The remaining corrections need to be handled as a matter of urgency. This should never be allowed to happen again." A DWP spokesperson said: "Our priority is ensuring pensioners receive the dignity and security they deserve in retirement and that State Pension underpayment rates remain as low as possible. "We have now completed the vast majority of cases in the exercise as planned with a small number of outstanding cases due to further documentation needed from the customer."