Thirty-Third Report - Underpayments of the State Pension

Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee HC 654 21 January 2022
Report Status Government responded
Conclusions & Recommendations 22 items (6 recs)
Source View on Parliament website
Government Response (AI assessment · 21 of 22 classified)
Accepted 7
Acknowledged 8
Not Addressed 4
Rejected 2
Government response
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty Third report from Session 2021-22 · published 28 Apr 2022
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Recommendations & Conclusions

7 results
3 Recommendation Accepted
The Department has not given people who are worried they have been underpaid enough information...
Recommendation
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 Summary
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
Correcting the State Pension underpayments comes at a great cost to the taxpayer and requires...
Conclusion
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 Summary
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
The Department has not been sufficiently transparent to Parliament about the State Pension underpayments.
Recommendation
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 Summary
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
In addition, the customer information contained in the legacy system is difficult to obtain, taking...
Conclusion
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 Summary
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
We challenged the Department on the adequacy of its quality assurance mechanisms.18 Despite the complexity...
Conclusion
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 Summary
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
The Department began a LEAP exercise for State Pension underpayments in January 2021, which was...
Conclusion
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 Summary
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
We asked the Department about the findings of the NAO financial audit of the Department’s...
Conclusion
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 Summary
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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