Why did my state pension top-up payment vanish for over a year?

A 57-year-old woman whose state pension top-up cash got lost in the system for more than a year has received an apology from the Government, after we stepped in.

Sharon Partridge double-checked with staff that her £814 payment would boost her eventual state pension before she transferred the money in summer 2025.

But HMRC has since admitted it gave her wrong information about her National Insurance (NI) record as well as an incorrect reference number for the purchase, after This is Money took up her case.

It had written to Mrs Partridge, a part-time cleaner who lives in Shropshire, last spring asking her for more information about her payment since it still hadn’t been allocated.

However, she and her husband Jolyon were then sent back and forth between HMRC and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) staff during a series of phone calls, and got nowhere trying to track down her money until we intervened.

We repeatedly hear complaints from This is Money readers about the DWP and HMRC, which run the top-ups system between them, shuttling people around their departments and blaming each other for problems.

Large sums of top-ups cash go missing

State pension top-ups are popular because they allow people who don’t have a full state pension record to make voluntary NI contributions to boost their payouts.

Thirty-five qualifying years are required to get the full headline state pension, which is currently worth £12,500 a year and will rise to £13,000 from next April.

This is Money has run a long campaign urging the Government to get a grip on the tortuous system, after hearing from many hundreds of readers over the years who are in despair about large sums of cash going missing.

We have called for the creation of one state pension top-ups department, under one boss and staffed by people drawn from both DWP and HMRC who together can deal with the entire process.

Mr Partridge describes how he and his wife were sent around the houses after they received a letter from HMRC in May, alerting them that her payment hadn’t been processed.

‘HMRC told us to go back to DWP and get them to instruct HMRC what to do with this payment, which we have done and nothing happened.

‘We called DWP to ask why nothing was allocated, and after checking still nothing has been allocated.

‘DWP said they have instructed a case worker at the HMRC to process this payment and they will do so as soon as possible but they are very busy.’

Mr Partridge went on: ‘They said they are very busy but they have had this money all this time.’

And Mrs Partridge adds: ‘It just makes me cross that they hung on to my money for nearly a year and then wrote to me asking what it was for.’

HMRC found out she had overpaid £384 once the case was investigated, and a spokesman says: ‘We apologise to Mrs Partridge. 

‘We have now corrected the allocation of her contributions and written to confirm that she will receive a refund.’

Did DWP ‘callback’ tool work for you?

This is Money was deluged last year by readers upset about state pension top-ups cash vanishing after a huge rush ahead of a deadline to fill older gaps in NI records.

A temporary deal to buy voluntary state pension top-ups going back to 2006-07 ran out in April 2025, and now you can only backdate for the past six years.

Recently, Peter Brookes contacted us to complain about the ‘callback’ system, which allowed people to input their details and still buy top-ups after the deadline. 

The DWP introduced this as a way to ease the huge rush of people trying to buy top-ups at the time.

Mr Brookes, 60, who has a home in Hampshire and works as a finance director in Egypt, wanted to buy 15 years to fill gaps in his NI record.

He registered for a callback four times and the fourth time took a screenshot, but says he never received a phone call on the mobile number he had given.

When we raised Mr Brookes’s case, the DWP checked its records and said two unsuccessful call attempts were made on April 11, 2025 to that number.

We asked the DWP whether people’s right to buy years going back to 2006 hinged on them managing to pick up the phone on one of two phone calls from DWP following their callback request.

We also asked whether the record of someone requesting a callback – such as a screenshot in Mr Brookes’s case – would still be sufficient evidence now to let them buy top-ups for older years under the previous rules.

However, the DWP did not respond to these questions.

Mr Brookes eventually bought several top-ups covering more recent qualifying years in March this year, to beat a different deadline.

People who worked abroad could previously buy them at a cheaper rate, but from April this year they are charged the same amount as everyone else.

Following our intervention, Mr Brookes’s payment was processed, and by the time he reaches state pension age he should accumulate enough years to receive the full annual amount. 

Did you use the DWP callback system in spring 2025 but miss the calls, or never receive them? Or, did you pick up but not remember your NI number so couldn’t go ahead with a top-ups purchase? 

Email us at: pensionquestions@thisismoney.co.uk.