[ad_1]
The UK government’s pension payment system is “inappropriate” and needs to be changed urgently to prevent the recurrence of £ 1bn fraud, according to a parliamentary finance officer.
In a report published Friday, the House of Commons Public Accounts committee criticized the Department of Labor and Pensions for dealing with “shameful” scandals in dealing with numerous state pension payments since 1985, affecting 134,000 mainly women living. who died.
“For years the department of employment and pensions has relied on a system that pays for pensions that are complex and require workers to look after more stocks – and now some retirees and taxpayers pay,” says Dame Meg Hillier, a chair of the committee. .
“Urgently, the department must consider whether there are any mitigating measures to upgrade its IT infrastructure and improve its operational management.”
About 12m people currently receive a state pension and the right to take on the history of national insurance contributions or loans.
DWP recognized early in 2020 of low state pension payments, the offenses affected women who started receiving benefits before April 2016 and who did not have a national insurance record or who were entitled to receive additional benefits from a deceased spouse.
Action to address the minimum wage began in 2021 and is expected to take about three years and cost DWP £ 23.4m with more than 500 employees brought in, the committee said.
“DWP is now on its ninth mission to rectify these shortcomings… (A) “And there is no guarantee that the errors that led to the refund will not be repeated in the correction.”
The committee criticized the DWP’s use of old systems and manual repairs, as well as the “negligence” of the bugs in checking the bugs and the system to ensure they were “not inappropriate”.
The department estimates that about 118,000 retirees could receive £ 8,900. To date, the department has received a minimum of £ 128,448.
The committee also criticized the DWP for not providing enough information to retirees if they were worried that they would be paid less, sometimes only repaying loans after many years, and disagreements over interest rates.
The PAC added that at present there is no plan to contact the more than 15,000 members who received less money but died.
“This is a disgrace,” Hillier said.
DWP said it was “carefully considering” the report and would respond “in time”.
“Eliminating government pensions that have been provided by governments in a row is very important and we are committed to doing this as soon as possible,” it added.
“We have set up a dedicated team and have made significant contributions to the recovery of cases that have occurred, and we have introduced new ways to improve behavior and education management to ensure that this does not happen again.”
[ad_2]
Source link
