THE Government paid out a whopping £500 million to dead people in a bizarre mistake, with Brits not even having to give back a penny.
Approximately £512 million has been overpaid in State Pension and Pension credit to deceased claimants since 2019-20, it was revealed.
In the past year alone, a staggering £159 million was erroneously issued by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The news follows a question asked by Reform MP Rupert Lowe in Parliament in regards to the more than half a billion pound sum of incorrect payments.
It was also revealed that just under half of the funds (£255 million) were ever returned over the past five years.
Lowe called on the system to be overhauled as families of claimants presently have no legal obligation to give any of the money back to the DWP, he told The Telegraph.
He described the mishap as a “shocking waste” and questioned why the Government would tolerate this.
Lowe said the system is “wide open” to fraud and abuse, adding: “Why is the return of this money not enforceable?
“It needs to be clamped down on as part of a wider Government effort to slash down on misspending.
“We must keep pushing for transparent data to uncover the true extent of the waste.”
The MP for Great Yarmouth’s claims were responded to by the DWP’s parliamentary under-secretary, Andrew Western.
He said that these erroneous payments made after the death of a customer represented just 0.1% of the total annual expenditure on pensions.
The MP for Stretford and Urmston added that the payments are treated as “non-recoverable” and unenforceable by law, with money only being returned to the Government voluntarily.
He said that recovering roughly half of the overpayments had been effective at avoiding the issue becoming a “long-term cost” to taxpayers.
Presently, deaths in England and Wales must be reported within five days of the person’s death or the discovery of their body.
However, you have up to eight days to report the death of an individual in Scotland.
Pension credit is paid in advance for those on the old state pension system, while state pensions and pension credit under the newer system are paid after the entitlement period.
This means payments often continue even after someone has died.
