This is Money has reported on underpayments owed to married women totting up to around £112,00 in the past few months, and two cases involving widows who received £115,000 and £117,000 respectively. But in a cruel twist, some women are getting fully repaid while others only get a one-year backpayment and increased state pension going forward - all depending on when they and their husband were born.

Married women who retired on small state pensions before April 2016 should get an uplift to 60 per cent of their husband's payments once he reaches retirement age too. Since 17 March 2008, the increases are supposed to be automatic, but before that women had to make a claim to get the full sum they were due. The Government was meant to write to the couples affected and ask them to apply for an increase.

But all the women who have missed out are adamant neither they nor their husbands received such a letter, and insist they would have acted on it if they had done so. Meanwhile, whether you receive a one-year or a full backpayment also depends on whether you reach state pension age before or after your husband, as well as his date of birth. If your husband reached state pension age before 17 March 2008, and you did so after him - even if your state pension age also fell before that key date - you still get full arrears.This is because the DWP should have taken account of your husband's state pension status, and automatically increased your state pension in line with it when you started receiving your payments too.

Source: This is Money