The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed it will publish an updated report into State Pension underpayments before Parliament stops for summer recess on July 21. The DWP is currently in the process of reviewing 405,000 cases as part of a LEAP exercise to identify underpayments, worth more than £1 billion in total, which were due to repeated human errors caused by complex rules and outdated IT systems.
Most of those affected are likely to be women.The previous release, published in March this year, showed that between January 2021 and February 2022 the checking process had identified 14,239 underpayments, worth a total of £94.3m.
When asked about progress at a recent Work and Pensions Committee hearing, the DWP said there are currently 500 people reviewing cases, and it aims to complete the exercise for people over the age of 80, the most vulnerable and those on category BL, by spring next year. DWP also plans to ramp up recruitment to 1,500 to complete the review by the end of December 2023.
