We have just hit the 10th anniversary of Steve Webb's first pension column, published on 16 February 2016 on This is Money. 

Watch out for a series of articles and events to celebrate this landmark all this week.

When I first had the idea of writing a weekly column answering pension questions from readers and suggested it to This is Money, we had no idea it would grow so popular.

As well as hopefully helping people to understand the system better, an unexpected upside has been the wins – big and small – that have made a real difference to hundreds of thousands of people.

Our biggest win started off with a simple column back in January 2020 when a reader raised the issue of his wife's very low state pension.

The first article triggered a huge response and, before we knew it, we had dozens and then later many hundreds of cases of people being underpaid state pensions.

Initially, we felt the Department for Work and Pensions was trying to fob us off, making out these could be isolated cases.

Eventually the DWP put in place a four-year correction exercise involving over a thousand civil servants checking hundreds of thousands of pension records one by one.

To date, DWP has paid out over £800million to 130,000 people, including more than 50,000 widows whose pensions were not reassessed when their husbands died.

Another important win arising from this was that DWP were then forced to do proper checks of state pension awards and they unearthed another major glitch.

Once again this mainly affected women, and arose from errors in allocating 'Home Responsibilities Protection' for time at home raising children.

In response, the Government launched a mass letter-writing campaign with hundreds of women receiving letters encouraging them to claim for missing HRP.

This has so far resulted in around £100million being paid out in arrears to just over 12,000 women, and we are keeping up the pressure to ensure more of those who missed out are tracked down.

A key factor in determining people's entitlement to a state pension is their National Insurance record, but in a separate investigation we found out that millions of people were missing out.

This is Money readers in receipt of Universal Credit told us that the National Insurance credits they should be getting were not showing up on their record.

The DWP tried to fob us off, but eventually had to admit in the House of Commons that there was a computer issue and huge numbers of NI credits were yet to be added. 

I have no doubt that it was only our pressure, working with supportive MPs, which forced the Government to come clean.

But one of the most rewarding things about writing my weekly column is not just the big campaigns. 

It's the individuals who get in touch who have been treated unfairly or are baffled by the system who we are able to help.

One of the most common requests is for help in finding a lost workplace pension.

In 2023 I was contacted by a reader who was sure she should have had a pension from a previous employer but had drawn a blank in her efforts to find it.

We worked together over more than a year, following changes in pension administrator, company take-overs and changes in the companies managing the money but eventually managed to track down a pot running into thousands of pounds.

With the lessons that I learned from this and other cases, I put together a guide on finding lost pensions which contains lots of useful tips if you are in the same situation.

I also often find myself supporting people who are being passed from government department to government department with no-one taking responsibility.

One example is the saga around state pension top-ups, where people are often sent back and forward between DWP and HMRC.

Another is the challenges in claiming an over 80s state pension. 

Several readers report being told that they cannot apply for a pension unless they have a National Insurance number but that they cannot have a National Insurance number without a good reason – and claiming a state pension apparently doesn't count!

As well as the failures of government departments, I'm also often called upon to help out when private pension companies let people down.

There have been lots of cases over the years where a message from me to an industry contact following a reader letter has helped to unlock things, and I'm grateful to those who have helped.

But I would much prefer it if companies had efficient systems for dealing with complaints rather than leaving people on hold on the phone or being promised follow-up letters which never materialise.

I couldn't spend the time that I do working on the column without the support and understanding of my employers – Royal London when I started the column back in 2016 and now actuarial consultancy LCP.

For more tricky cases I often call on the specialist expertise of colleagues or other industry experts and I'm grateful to all for their help.

Finally, this column is very much a partnership between me and This is Money, and in particular Tanya Jefferies with whom I've worked on the column from the beginning.

Tanya is an expert in her own right, and helps turn my drafts into something hopefully readable and engaging.

Most importantly, she, like me and the whole This is Money team, care about getting justice for our readers and I hope to continue to play my part for years to come.