A report by pensions consultancy LCP has uncovered that thousands of families of Financial Planner clients could be due a 'secret' state pension they may not be claiming.

LCP says the entitlement could be particularly relevant to financial advisers who serve areas with high ethnic minority populations.

The LCP report, ‘The mystery of the missing pensioners,’ suggests that many category D non-contributory pensions are not being claimed.

LCP says that there may be around 100,000 people may be due the pensions but they are not currently claiming them due to being unaware of the benefit.

It says that while Financial Planner clients themselves may not be in the group able to claim they may have family members who are entitled to the benefit.

The key group is those aged 80+ who are entitled to a non-contributory state pension (known as a ‘Category D’ pension) where it does not matter that the NI record is, people only have to have to have lived in the UK for 10 of the last 20 years up to the age of 80.  

In one case reported by LCP, a woman in Brighton aged 73 who worked overseas for much of her life is now receiving a regular pension of £82 and is due to receive pension arrears of over £20,000. 

LCP’s Sir Steve Webb said: “We think that there could be significant numbers of people who came to the UK part way through their adult life who didn’t have time to build up enough contributions for a pension but who would qualify for the over 80s pension (currently £82.45 per week) if only they knew about it.  

“Lack of awareness, assumption that they would be paid automatically and language barriers could all be reasons why people don’t claim.  It may be that some people of this age are also starting to suffer some cognitive decline and the whole process of being aware and claiming is too much.

“Whilst this is unlikely to be the immediate clients of advisers, it could easily be their extended family who would be most appreciative of starting to receive a pension of over £4,000 per year for a simple claim.”

LCP is generating publicity for the benefit and targeting media that may be heard by people from minority communities.