DWP due to pay back £5,000 on average to each person on State Pension affected by historical errors
06.03.2024 - 13:59
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A report published by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said it is “very concerned” the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reported yet another historic underpayment of State Pension last year, which it estimates may have left some 210,000 pensioners - mostly women - out of pocket by a total of £1.3 billion”, going back decades.
The committee said this estimate is in addition to the underpayment of £1.2 billion affecting 165,000 pensioners due to historical errors by DWP it reported on in 2022. The DWP said it expects to pay back an average of £5,000 to each affected pensioner.
The report stated the DWP must “do more to detect underpayments before they build up and have a significant impact on pensioners and other claimants”. Commenting on the State Pension underpayments, PAC chair Dame Meg Hillier accused the UK Government department of being “asleep at the switch”, with people being left short of what they are owed.
At the time, Dame Meg said: “Many pensioners have been left significantly out of pocket by up to thousands, while DWP has been asleep at the switch. These are injustices that may never be corrected for some. We are now in a place where Parliament needs assurance that the state pension is being paid accurately.
“We expect DWP to respond to our report in a timely fashion but, frankly, paying pension accurately is a basic that we expect from DWP and not recommendations that our committee ought to be having to make.”
The PAC also said the level of fraud and error in benefit spending “remains unacceptably high” as it raised its concerns the DWP does not expect this to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2027-28.
The level of fraud and error in benefits in 2022-23 is down on the previous year’s “eye-watering
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