Martin Lewis sparked a frenzy during his evening programme, The Martin Lewis Money Show, as fans overwhelmed a government website within minutes of the show’s start. During his Tuesday (March 4) appearance at the ITV studios, the 52-year-old personal finance expert resumed his role on the money-saving programme, sharing the latest advice and deals for the public.
The main focus of the episode was how viewers aged between 40 and 73 could potentially enhance their State Pension. The father-of-one detailed how Brits could transform £800 into £5,000 by boosting state pensions before the opportunity closes in April 2025.
Evidently, fans were hanging onto his every word, as he announced that the government website had crashed merely five minutes into the broadcast. Upon returning from the commercial break, he shared: ” Welcome back. Tonight it’s all about boosting your state pension by possibly tens of thousands of pounds for an urgent deadline.
“I predicted it before the break, the government website that do the checks has gone down, apparently it went down five minutes into the programme. It’s going to struggle, it’s like a denial of service error but there’ll be time still to do it. Keep watching and learning what you need to do while you can get in touch.”
The TV personality further revealed that he had notified the company about the subject of his financial show prior to its commencement, yet conceded that “no website can cope” with the surge of checks from his viewers, reports the Express.
It didn’t take long before fans flooded to X – formerly known as Twitter – to share teir complaints online. One user asked: “Are all government sites gonna crash tonight, this is the pension forecast tool Martin Lewis is currently talking about on screen #martinlewis.”
Another echoed: “#MartinLewis caused the Gov site to crash again” Keep trying folks! Could be well worth it. @itvMLshow.” A third chimed in with: “Looks like we’ve crashed the site again @martinSLewis #martinlewis.” Later on in the show, Martin revealed that the last time he discussed how Brits can boost their state pension before the annual deadline, the system crashed and the deadline was extended.
He went on to explain that on Monday (March 3) the government has launched a new provision to help residents hoping to make changes before the deadline. There is also a DWP call-back request form which can extend the deadline even if they don’t reply until after April 5.
The broadcaster further encouraged viewers to take a screenshot of the form and the request sent page and then send them to their email account to log the date and time stamp that the changes were made regarding the upcoming deadline.
The Martin Lewis Money Show Live airs on Tuesdays from 8pm on ITV1 or catch up on ITVX.