Recommendation 27

In January 2021 the Department launched an exercise to review around 400,000 cases ‘at risk’ of underpayment to confirm the extent of the issue and reimburse affected pensioners. The Department wrote to us in May 2022 explaining that it was on track to conclude the review of the original 400,000 cases by the end of 2023.52 But it noted in its most recent Annual Report and Accounts that it was planning on the basis that completion would likely be delayed to the end of 2024 because of the potentially affected pensioners newly identified during 2021–22. The NAO reported that between January 2021 and March 2022, the Department reviewed an average of 4,000 cases per month, but 48 Committee of Public Accounts, Underpayments of the State Pension, Thirty-Third Report of Session 2021–22, HC 654, 12 January 2022 49 DWP ARA 2021–22, pages 234, 291 50 Qq 85, 91 51 DWP Follow up Correspondence to the Public Accounts Committee Hearing on DWP Annual Report & Accounts 2021–22 on 20 July, 6 September 2022 52 Correspondence from Peter Schofield CB, Permanent Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions, Re: State Pension Underpayments, 16 May 2022 The Department for Work and Pensions’ Accounts 2021–22 – Fraud and error in the benefits system 19 it will need to review around 19,000 cases per month going forward to achieve its target deadline.53 We asked the Department whether it genuinely believed that a 400% increase in workload would be achievable. It told us it was confident it could achieve its 2024 deadline by boosting staffing from 500 to 1,500, increasing the speed at which cases were reviewed, and deploying automation tools, which were still under development. We questioned the Department on whether the additional 1,000 staff would need to be compensated for in the wider headcount reductions. It explained that it did not expect this would be an issue because these reductions were planned for March 2025, and therefore would not affect its 2024 target completion date. We observed