Universal Credit claimants were also underpaid
Pensioners were underpaid a staggering £530 million last year because of mistakes by government officials, new analysis has revealed. Processing errors meant just over 10 percent of all State Pension cases had underpayments, impacting around 1.3 million pensioners, reports the Express.
“These figures are the first year that checks have been done properly - they’ve actually been phoning people up - and unsurprisingly the underpayments are very high.” Details of the underpayments were unearthed in official government documents about fraud and error in the benefits system. Some 1.8 million people were affected by underpayments overall. Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Jonathan Ashworth MP, said: “When so many families and pensioners are struggling, these levels of incompetence are staggering.
“The issue of state pension underpayments has been reported widely in the press with the National Audit Office estimating well over 100,000 people, primarily women, not receiving what they are due. The government is in the midst of identifying and repaying those affected but the reality is this is going to take some time and many people have struggled financially as a result. The benefits system is hugely complex and difficult to navigate.
Of the 173, 538 accounts checked between January 11, 2021 and February 28, 2023, exactly 46,716 underpayments were identified. That's the equivalent to about £6,424 per case.
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