[2025] UKUT 168 (AAC)

The claimant was born on 20 August 1955. He therefore attained pensionable age for the purposes of Part 1 of the Pensions Act 2014 on reaching his 66^th birthday on 20 August 2021.

Because of the change to the social security statutory scheme following the decision of the House of Lords in Insurance Officer v McCaffrey [1984] 1 WLR 1353, and subject to immaterial exceptions, it is not possible for a claimant to secure entitlement to a social security benefit (including the state pension) without making a claim for that benefit: see section 1(1) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992.

The claimant carried on working after his 66^th birthday until July 2022 when he retired due to health issues. He then made an on-line claim for the state pension on 17 August 2022. It is not disputed, and the First-tier Tribunal (“FTT”) found as a fact, that the claimant indicated clearly on the on-line claim form that he wished to claim the state pension from his 67^th birthday, which was on 20 August 2022. This was by him answering the question “What date do you want to get your State Pension from?” with the answer “20 08 2022”.

It is also not disputed that the answer of “20 08 2022” which the claimant gave on the on-line claim form was a mistake by the claimant as he had intended to claim the state pension from his 66^th birthday and so from 20 August 2021. It is important to emphasise that this ‘mistake’ was not in any sense apparent on the claim form the claimant completed. The FTT accepted the claimant had intended to claim the state pension from his 66^th birthday. The mistake lay in the claimant putting the wrong date on the on-line claim form.

The FTT helpfully describes the relevant narrative in its findings of fact as follows:

“5.

[The claimant] was entitled to apply for his state pension from his 66^th birthday, 20/08/2021 but decided not to do so at this time. He did however apply for it on 17/08/2022. He had left it until nearly one year after his 66^th birthday as back in August 2021 he was still working and had less need for his pension. However upon his retirement in July 2022 he decided then to make his pension claim knowing he would be entitled to it from his 66^th birthday. He realised that would involve a significant “backdated” payment that he very much wanted as he had various debts he had accumulated over the years. He had never throughout his working life received such a backdated payment and was looking forward as far as he was concerned to receiving it. A number of his work colleagues had previously done similarly.

6 When he made his claim on 17/08/2022 he requested payment from 20/08/2022. This was an error on his part. He acknowledges this fact. He put down 20/08/2022 because that is when he wanted the payment to start, but he assumed this meant he would receive his pension from his 66^th birthday. He did not want to defer obtaining his state pension until his 67^th birthday.

7 He started receiving his state pension a few weeks later but when by October 2022 he had still not received any payments apart from his regular four weekly ones, he contacted the Pensions Service. He was told that since 2016 claimants were not entitled to a “lump sum payment” if they deferred payment of their pension but that instead he would receive a bit extra in each four weekly payment. He actually receives currently an extra £11.07 weekly.

8 [The claimant] however never intended to defer his state pension. He had always wanted to claim it from his 66^th birthday, and although the law changed from April 2016 in that from then, if you deferred your pension you could no longer receive a lump sum payment, only an additional weekly amount in recognition of a deferral, this change in the law should not have affected [the claimant] because he claimed within the requisite 12 months maximum time limit to receive his pension from his 66^th birthday.

9 This chain of events has however caused [the claimant] significant confusion because he has to all intents and purposes been talking at cross purposes with the Secretary of State. He has been told he can no longer receive a lump sum payment and evidently this is the case from April 2016 but [the claimant] only ever wanted a backdated payment. His error is the 20/08/2022 reference. If on 17/08/2022 he had input 20/08/2021 he would simply have been paid his pension from his 66^th birthday that would evidently have meant he would have received a backdated payment of 12 months.”

None of this is challenged or disputed by the Secretary of State. The issue on the appeal is whether the mistake could be rectified once the claim had been decided.

The decision on the claim for the state pension was made on the same day by the Secretary of State as the claim was made, on 17 August 2022. That decision decided that the claimant was entitled to state pension from 20 August 2022 of £199.10 per week. £11.07 of this weekly figure consisted of “Extra State Pension” which was awarded to the claimant because he had deferred claiming the state pension for one year from 20 August 2021 to 20 August 2022. It is not disputed that this £11.07 figure represents the increments to which the claimant was entitled if his entitlement to state pension had been deferred pursuant to section 17(8)(a) of the Pensions Act 2014 until 20 August 2022.

As set out above ,the FTT found that had the claimant indicated to the Secretary of State prior to the decision of 17 August 2022 awarding him the state pension that he wished to claim state pension from 20 August 2021, the Secretary of State would have decided that he was entitled to state pension from that earlier date. It is accepted that this contingent finding is correct as the claim would have been within the period prescribed by regulation 19(1) of, and entry no.13 in Schedule 4 to, the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987. In that (contingent) event, the claimant would not have been awarded Extra State Pension, but would instead have been paid arrears of state pension that would have accrued in the one year period after 20 August 2021.

This contingent finding reflects in a nutshell the choice the claimant faced about from when he wanted his entitlement to the state pension to begin. He could either defer the entitlement (in this case for one year) and get his state pension from his 67^th birthday together with the ‘Extra State Pension’ to reflect his one year of deferral. Or he could claim his state pension on his 67^th birthday but backdated to his 66^th birthday.

The claimant appealed the Secretary of State’s decision of 17 August 2022 to the FTT. His grounds of appeal argued that he had deferred his state pension payment from August 2021 to August 2022.