Investigation into underpayment of State Pension

We recommend that the Department: Improves prompt redress and increases transparency over the LEAP exercise d) regularly updates Parliament on the progress of its LEAP exercises, including the scope of the reviews, which cases are and are not being reviewed, and what has been found;

e) publishes information on the LEAP exercise, including on what guidance is available for pensioners who are concerned they may have been affected by these errors, to help avoid people who are unaffected unnecessarily contacting the Department, and to help those that have been affected to understand the process and implications; and

f) develops a process by which the beneficiary or executors of estates can find out if the LEAP exercise has identified they are due a payment of arrears, to help tackle cases where the Department cannot trace the next of kin of deceased pensioners affected.

Strengthens its controls and quality assurance processes g) strengthens the standard controls over processing State Pension claims. For example, it should consider whether it would be value for money to either make it routine to check an existing partner’s claim when the second person in a couple makes their claim, or to regularly scan for and check cases at risk of being underpaid;

h) improves training on and management of complex State Pension cases. For example, for the duration of the LEAP exercise it should regularly consider what additional training, guidance and case studies of complex cases its State Pension case workers need, in the light of its evolving learning; and

Improve its detection of the systemic causes of underpayments across the Department j) accelerates its response to our previous recommendation to record and produce management information on detected underpayments; and