Underpayments of the State Pension

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 21 Sep 2021 Closed: 7 Apr 2022 Parliament page
In early 2020 the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) became aware of underpayments of State Pension affecting certain women who reached State Pension Age before 2016 . Subsequent DWP investigations uncovered systematic issues meaning that tens of thousands of people might have been underpaid State Pension for many years. … Read more
6 Recommendations
16 Conclusions
1 Report
1 Oral session
3 Letters
1 Event
Activity timeline 6 events
28 Apr
2022
Report published
25 Apr
2022
Correspondence
21 Jan
2022
Report published
14 Dec
2021
Correspondence
23 Nov
2021
Correspondence
28 Oct
2021
Oral evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
28 Oct 2021
View on parliament.uk
Underpayments of the State Pension
Amanda Reynolds · Department for Work & Pensions Cathy Payne · Department for Work & Pensions Peter Schofield · Department for Work and Pensions
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Thirty-Third Report - Underpayments of the State Pension HC 654 21 Jan 2022 22 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
7 results
Clear
3 Recommendation Accepted
Thirty-Third Report - Underpayment…
The Department has not given people who are worried they have been underpaid enough information...
The Department has not given people who are worried they have been underpaid enough information to find out what they should do, with the risk that many may still miss out on money they should receive. The Department’s communications strategy … Read more
Government Response
The department welcomes the endorsement of action already taken with their proposed recommendation, although rejects the Committee’s conclusion and refers to existing information on Gov.uk.
HM Treasury
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4 Conclusion Accepted
Thirty-Third Report - Underpayment…
Correcting the State Pension underpayments comes at a great cost to the taxpayer and requires...
Correcting the State Pension underpayments comes at a great cost to the taxpayer and requires experienced specialist staff that are in short supply. The correction exercise requires specialist staff and training and is expected to cost the Department £23.4 million, … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and has allocated additional resource, both from internal moves, and external recruitment to have over 1400 frontline delivery colleagues working on the exercise and staff who had joined for the exercise on fixed term appointments were made permanent in December 2021.
HM Treasury
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5 Recommendation Accepted
Thirty-Third Report - Underpayment…
The Department has not been sufficiently transparent to Parliament about the State Pension underpayments.
The Department has not been sufficiently transparent to Parliament about the State Pension underpayments. Until recently, the Department has been reluctant to provide details of the volume or value of State Pension underpayments or the backlog in processing new State … Read more
Government Response
The Department agrees to provide periodic updates to the Committee and the Parliament on the progress of the State Pension LEAP exercise and the speed of processing the backlog in the new State Pension and has committed to providing a further update at the next fiscal event.
HM Treasury
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8 Conclusion Accepted
Thirty-Third Report - Underpayment…
In addition, the customer information contained in the legacy system is difficult to obtain, taking...
In addition, the customer information contained in the legacy system is difficult to obtain, taking several weeks to scan, and demographic data—such as income distribution or ethnic background—are not available.15 The Department told us that, while it was not 7 … Read more
Government Response
The department has made significant progress to transform customer experiences and replace legacy IT systems through the new Get your State Pension (GySP) service, introduced in 2018. Complex work is now brigaded into specialist areas and revised work instructions have been issued and enhanced checking is undertaken, targeting elements of the new instructions to ensure compliance.
HM Treasury
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9 Conclusion Accepted
Thirty-Third Report - Underpayment…
We challenged the Department on the adequacy of its quality assurance mechanisms.18 Despite the complexity...
We challenged the Department on the adequacy of its quality assurance mechanisms.18 Despite the complexity of State Pension entitlements and the increased risk posed by manual processes of calculating an award, the Department’s own internal analysis found that existing quality … Read more
Government Response
The department has strengthened its assurance methodologies, to ensure that associated sampling is more robust and picks up the widest range of errors possible for correction, using insight to inform organisational learning and continuous improvement plans. It will share its Quality Framework improvements with the Committee.
HM Treasury
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13 Conclusion Accepted
Thirty-Third Report - Underpayment…
The Department began a LEAP exercise for State Pension underpayments in January 2021, which was...
The Department began a LEAP exercise for State Pension underpayments in January 2021, which was originally expected to take more than six years to complete. Following a ministerial decision in March 2021 to recruit additional staff, the Department revised the … Read more
Government Response
The government states the recommendation is implemented, detailing how it continues to manage demand and allocate additional resources, including recruitment and internal moves, to the LEAP exercise to maintain its delivery and revised completion date.
HM Treasury
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15 Conclusion Accepted
Thirty-Third Report - Underpayment…
We asked the Department about the findings of the NAO financial audit of the Department’s...
We asked the Department about the findings of the NAO financial audit of the Department’s 2020–21 accounts, which identified nearly 200 of 1,500 cases where the LEAP reviewers had incorrectly assessed arrears on married women’s entitlement.31 The NAO concluded that, … Read more
Government Response
The government states the recommendation is implemented, detailing significant progress in transforming customer experiences and replacing legacy IT systems, enhancing the Customer Account Management system, strengthening quality assurance processes, and implementing IT changes within the LEAP exercise to reduce errors.
HM Treasury
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Government Response AI assessment · 21 of 6 classified
Accepted 7
Acknowledged 8
Not Addressed 4
Rejected 2
Total 6 recs + 16 conclusions
Correspondence 3 letters
25 Apr 2022 Joint correspondence from Rt Hon Stephen Timms, Chair, Work and Pensions Committee and Dame Meg Hillier, Chair, Public Accounts Committee, re State Pension Underpayments, dated 20 April 2022
Parliament page
14 Dec 2021 Correspondence from Sir Steve Webb, Partner, LCP, re State Pension Correction Exercise, dated 7 December 2021
Parliament page
23 Nov 2021 Correspondence from Peter Schofield CB, Permanent Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions, re inquiry into underpayments of State Pension, dated 15 November 2021
Parliament page