Pensioners underpaid by £530 million last year due to errors

Labour Party analysis revealed that more than one in 10 pensioners were affected by mistakes.
Mistakes by officials saw pensioners across the UK underpaid by £530 million last year, according to government figures (John Stillwell/PA)
PA Wire
Rob Freeman1 May 2023
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Mistakes by officials saw pensioners across the UK underpaid by £530 million last year, according to Government figures.

Analysis of the figures by the Labour Party found more than one in 10 pensioners – around 1.3 million people – did not receive their full benefit.

That amounted to almost half of mistakes which saw benefit claimants miss out on £1.1 billion during the 2021-22 financial year.

Labour said around 1.8 million people had been underpaid due to processing errors by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), HMRC or local authorities.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “When so many families and pensioners are struggling, these levels of incompetence are staggering.

“It’s time blundering Tory ministers got a grip.

“Labour would crack down on these failures and take action to get living standards up and tackle the growing poverty crisis facing the country.”

State pensions accounted for 48% of underpayments with Universal Credit recipients missing out on £140 million.

Employment and Support Allowance payments were out by £130,000 according to the figures.

Our priority is ensuring everyone receives the financial support to which they are entitled and, where errors do occur, we are committed to fixing them as quickly as possible

DWP spokesperson

The figures reflect the first year of giving figures based on checks rather than using estimates.

DWP figures released last month showed pensioners had received £300 million to counter underpayments.

A DWP spokesperson told the Daily Express: “State pension underpayment rates remain low at 0.5% of expenditure.

“Our priority is ensuring everyone receives the financial support to which they are entitled and, where errors do occur, we are committed to fixing them as quickly as possible.”

Initial government estimates for the 2022-23 financial year are due to be released on May 11.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in